Secret Women's Business
by LouBlue
Summary: Olicity. It's the oldest story in the book. Girl has secret. Boy finds out girl is keeping a secret from him. Boy drives himself crazy trying to find out what secret is. Generalized confusion ensues. Possibly the lamest summary ever written on this site for a story. If you're still reading this, how much worse can the story be? You're in too deep now - may as well keep reading.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N****: Hello all, and thank you for clicking on my link (that's what she said). **

**Full disclosure before we go any further and in complying with the unspoken agreement of trust (which I am now going to speak about, making it less unspoken then the term would originally suggest) between the reader and the readee… or, if you want to be all technically correct and not make up words – the writer… wait, where was I? Oh yes, I'm doing my due diligence and confessing that if you want to be totally anally accurate about this story, I am forced to admit, that, only in the most literal understanding of the following words – I haven't (technically speaking) ever watched an entire episode of Arrow. **

**I realize someone attempting to write a fanfiction story about a show they're not, strictly speaking, watching is an endeavor fraught with issues. I am not unaware of this fact. Rather like a horse who has been asked to make holiday reservations for a family of four in the Bahamas, I have my work cut out for me. Why put myself in this kind of vulnerable position I hear you ask? Very good question, but please don't interrupt while I'm talking, there's a dear. I am here because what I have watched is the amazing chemistry between SA and EBR on YouTube and gleaned their character's story through watching snatches here and there of the show. So, inspired by the potential of what I've seen so far and begging forgiveness of the many pieces of mythology of the show which I'm going to gloss over with gay abandon, I'm going to have a crack at this. **

**You see, I really like the character of Felicity. I think she's a super hero in her own right because she is smart and funny and scared but doing it anyway. Those are pretty much attributes we should all be so lucky to have, right? I thought I'd tinker around a little with the character of Felicity and see how far I could take her. A woman doesn't have to fight like a man (while wearing thigh high boots and displaying a heaving cleavage) to be a worthwhile member of a super hero club. I like that and want to see Felicity be all that she can be. **

**And then, of course, there is Oliver. Stoic, unflappable Oliver who likes to be in control of everything, particularly his emotions. Of course I'm going to want to mess with that. Lol I like the side of Oliver that Felicity brings out. No one else showcases those other qualities of Oliver that are a bit softer… and how knows, maybe a little more neurotic, only time will tell. ;) **

**So, if you're still reading this (what a trooper, have a cookie!), you'll note that I haven't really given you much of an idea of what this story is about. Basically, it's kind of fluffy, Olicity-centric tale which gives me a chance to just thrash out some dialogue which I'm such a whore for. Felicity has a secret… and Oliver wants to know what it is. I know, that old trope but I'm hoping I can inject some kind of memorability into it. (Dang, I didn't think memorability was a word but spell check has given it the thumbs up – you go with your bad self spell check!). **

**Just a heads up, I have another story with a similar name – Secret Men's Business – for the show Grimm. Please don't get confused, they're completely different stories with no links to one another… although, there is a surprising urine-heavy motif to both of them, now that I think about it. I'm sure that says something about me… best not to dwell though. **

**Moving swiftly on…**

**Look, you've made it this far, you may as well just keep reading. What's the worst that can happen? Really, really bad fan fiction… or maybe you'll laugh, you'll cry, your life will be changed forever. Okay, that probably won't happen, if I'm being honest. I'll let you make up your own mind about reading on or not. I'll just stand over here in the corner of your room, touching all your stuff until you decide… no pressure.**

**secret women's business**

By Louise Blue

"Women and cats will do as they please,

and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."  
~Robert A. Heinlein~

**CHAPTER ONE**

"One black coffee, one green tea," said the young woman behind the counter as she handed over the tray of hot beverages.

"Thank you," said Oliver politely, reaching into his jacket for his wallet.

"Cheesecake!" Felicity's voice shouted the reminder to him over the noise of the busy coffee shop.

"And a slice of the lemon cheesecake, please," said Oliver, adding onto his order. He paid for the items and then picked up the tray of drinks and cheesecake, weaving his way through the crowd back to the waiting Felicity.

"This place is crazy busy," she noted as Oliver took her arm and directed her towards a two-person nook which had just been vacated.

"It's gotten a good reputation for its coffee," he noted, waiting until Felicity had slid into the tiny booth before sliding in next to her.

"It's a bit out of our way though. I thought we'd just be going to our usual coffee haunt. I don't know if the coffee can be good enough to justify driving to the other side of town."

"We're not here for the coffee," said Oliver as he slid her green tea over to her.

"Well, I'm not," she said, picking up the cup and blowing on the hot liquid.

Oliver arched an eyebrow at her in a silent question.

"Health kick," Felicity explained. "I watched a documentary on coffee and it was terrifying. It's green tea for me now on. Green tea is awesome, it's full of anti-oxidants which help brain function, protects against diabetes and even some diseases like prostate cancer."

Oliver's lips twitched. "Your prostrate giving you a lot of trouble these days, Ms Smoak?" he teased her.

"Okay, yes, I realize I don't have a prostate," she sniffed, "but if I did, it'd be singing my praises right now."

"A disturbing thought on so many levels," noted Oliver wryly. "So, this health kick of yours, where does the cheesecake fit in?"

"_Lemon_ cheesecake," pointed out Felicity. "Lemons are full of vitamin C."

Oliver's expression was decidedly skeptical. "And all that fat and sugar the vitamin C is embedded in, that isn't a factor for you?"

"Are you mocking my attempts to treat my body as a temple?" asked Felicity, looking suitably put out.

"And this temple you're constructing," said Oliver straight-faced, "it doesn't happen to have a set of golden arches at the top of it and a drive through, at all?"

Felicity's eyes narrowed in mock menace. "Just for that, you don't get any of my cheesecake, which I was going to generously share with you."

"Technically it's my cheesecake because I bought it."

Felicity scooted the plate of rich dessert closer to her body and put an arm around it protectively. "Possession is nine tenths of the law."

"You think I couldn't take that from you if I really wanted to?"

Felicity held up the plastic utensil which had come with the dessert. "Maybe, but not before I give you the sporking of your life, mister."

Oliver looked away, hiding his smile as he shook his head. He looked back at her. "At ease, soldier, your plate of artery clogging death is safe from me," said Oliver in amusement. "I don't have a sweet tooth."

"I know," said Felicity disapprovingly. "It's my fifth least favorite thing about you. What kind of person doesn't like sweet things? It's just weird and unnerving."

Oliver gave her a surprised look. "Fifth? You have at least four other things you don't like about me?"

Felicity avoided his gaze. "I didn't say that."

"If something is fifth in line, it's pretty much a given there is a first, second, third and fourth preceding it," said Oliver a little indignantly. "That's how the counting system works."

"If you want to get technical about it, I guess," said Felicity begrudgingly.

"So, what are the other four things?" Oliver didn't know why but the thought of Felicity not liking things about him kind of bothered him.

"Who says there are only four?" she asked sweetly.

"Seriously, there are more than five things about me that you dislike?" asked Oliver in shock. "Seriously?" _What the hell?_ "What are they?"

"Well, you can be pretty annoyingly relentless about some things, like a dog with a bone," said Felicity dryly. "Although, if I'm being honest, that's also in your pro column. Just depends what you're being relentless about."

"You have a pro list about me as well?" asked Oliver, slightly mollified.

Felicity gave a little inelegant snort. "Of course I have a pro list. You can't have a con's list without a pro one. That's just crazy talk."

"You don't think itemizing my qualities is a bit crazy?"

"It's not just you, I do it with everyone."

Oliver blinked. "You do?" He didn't know if that made him feel any better.

"Yes, I find making lists a very soothing hobby. It makes order out of chaos and I like that. Growing up my life with my mother was just random and arbitrary and I had no kind of control over it. I started making lists and organizing things and people around me and it made me feel better, safer, you know?" Felicity gave a little shrug. "Anyways, I just never got out of the habit, I guess."

Oliver stared at her. "So, this pros and cons list of yours – which do I have more of?"

Felicity rolled her eyes and picked up her tea. "Like your ego needs a boost from me, Oliver."

Oliver grinned. "More pros then cons then?"

"Not now that I've had to add egotistical to the cons list," she deadpanned and then took a sip of her tea. Felicity promptly spluttered and made a choking sound. "Oh my God," she gasped, "there is something wrong with my tea. It's gone off or something."

Oliver quickly took the cup from Felicity's hand and took a sip of his own. He shook her head at her. "It tastes completely normal to me."

Felicity's eyes went wide. "_That's_ what green tea is supposed to taste like?"

"Yes. Haven't you ever had any before?"

"No." Felicity took her cup back and looked down at the liquid with some trepidation. "Are you seriously telling me that is normal for green tea to taste like that?"

"Yes."

"But it tastes like yak urine," said Felicity in distress. "Or, at least, what I imagine yak urine would taste like." She looked intently at him. "Don't you think?"

Oliver shook his head at her carry one. "Why would I know what yak or any other kind of urine tastes like?"

"I don't know, you were on that island for five years. A lot of weird things went down, you said so yourself."

"Yeah but me drinking urine wasn't one of them," said Oliver flatly.

"I wouldn't judge you if you did," Felicity offered up easily.

"Good to know, but I still didn't drink urine, mine or anyone else's."

"I don't know. You seem to be protesting it a lot. I don't know if you'd feel the need to be so vehement on the subject if you actually hadn't." Felicity took a sip of her tea without thinking and then made a gagging sound. "Oh God, it's even worse the second time. How is that possible?" She made a few more hacking noises, trying to clear the taste from her mouth.

"If you don't like the taste of green tea, then don't drink it," said Oliver in exasperation.

"It's good for me," she ground out stubbornly. Felicity picked up her spork and cut a wedge of cheesecake off and then dropped it into her tea, swirling it around to mix the two together.

"I'm almost positive any health benefits of green tea are going to be cancelled out if the only way you can drink the stuff is dissolving a slab of cheesecake in it," said Oliver dryly.

"Hey, do I tell you how to train?" Felicity demanded to know. "No, I don't think so. Let me do this health kick thing my way, okay?"

"You told me to move the bar ladder away from your workstation," he reminded her.

"That's because I'd periodically be showered in sweat from high above." She wrinkled her nose prettily. "It was like being in a permanent salty monsoon season."

Oliver pouted a little. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't that bad."

"That's because you were the sweater. Take it from the sweatee, it was pretty bad sometimes."

Oliver gave up, just happy he wasn't being accused of drinking urine anymore. A thought occurred to him. "Hey, that urine thing better not be on my con's list because it never happened."

"The contents of the list is not up for public scrutiny or auditing by outside sources," said Felicity primly.

"You know, I could just as easily start a list about you too," he threatened her.

"Have at it," she invited him. "The list system is open to any and all who wish to avail themselves of its soothing, life-ordering benefits."

"I'm not making a list," said Oliver. "And you know why? Because I'm normal."

"Of course you are. And you've got the full leather outfit and mask to prove it."

"You're hysterical."

Felicity gave him a smug smile. "So much material to work with, it's pretty hard not to be."

"Well, now that you've mentioned the alter ego, that's as good a time as any to tell you why we're here."

"It wasn't just to poison me with urine tea?"

"No, that was just a bonus." Oliver pointed at the window in front of them. "See that bookstore there?"

"Yes."

"It's been getting some interesting deliveries lately."

"I'm guessing it's not the latest Stephen King thriller."

"Not exactly. I think it's a front for some kind of drug running operation. In particular, Rock Kandy."

"That new designer drug which is causing all those murder/suicides?"

Oliver nodded. "Yes. I caught a guy last week selling the stuff and let him go."

"You let him go?" repeated Felicity in surprise.

"So I could follow him and he headed directly back to this bookstore."

Felicity looked around the crowded coffee shop, crammed full of customers. "Oliver, should we really be having this conversation here? I mean, anyone could hear us."

"Crowded place are the most private places. No one pays you any attention because there are so many people."

"I know people always say that but I bet if we started having sex in the middle of the store, people would notice."

Oliver looked at her in surprise at that comment and Felicity immediately blushed. "I didn't mean us specifically," she back tracked hastily. "I just meant that if something like that happened, it wouldn't be that private all of a sudden."

Oliver's lips quirked. "No one is going to have sex in a coffee shop, Felicity."

"They might if the cutest boy in school told you he thought you had really pretty eyes and it was just the two of you locking up on a Saturday night and he'd just dumped the lead cheerleader who called you flat chested in the middle of gym class in front of everyone." Felicity took a breath and then quickly continued on. "I mean, theoretically, something like that could happen, not that it actually did. I'm just saying… if it did happen, that could be one possible way it could have happen… but it didn't… so I'm going to stop talking now." Felicity was blushing again after her mouth had run away with her and to avoid looking at him, she took another sip of her cheesecake laden tea. She screwed up her face and started to cough. "Okay, the cheesecake idea was a bad one. Very, very bad." Felicity made a few rasping noises as some of the crumbs from the cheesecake base didn't seem to want to go down without a fight.

Oliver took the cup of soggy dessert away from her. "Okay, I'm cutting you off. Your health kick is going to be the death of me and have us thrown out of this café."

Felicity was still wheezing and drawing some odd looks. "It was sound in theory," she gasped. "One delicious thing should cancel out one disgusting thing."

"Please, Felicity, can we just talk about the bookstore for five minutes?" said Oliver with mild ire. "This is getting us nowhere."

"Fine, don't mind me dying over here," she said and gave a final couple of coughs. "Tell me about your bookstore of death. I'm all ears. What's the plan?"

Oliver reached into his coat pocket and drew out his phone. He called up the schematics he'd downloaded previously of the building. Felicity moved closer and leant on the table top, supporting her head with one hand and leant into him. Oliver then went on to talk about the owner of the store and his ties to a Russian gang which also seemed to have its hand in gun running and possibly an extortion ring. He told Felicity about known associates and how he thought the drugs were being brought into the country and his plans for confirming his theories and what he wanted to do next. Oliver was actually impressed that Felicity didn't interrupt him once during his information dump. "So, what do you think? Is it possible to put a tracker on these guys which can give us a live feed at all times?" asked Oliver as he continued to flick through the images on his phone, showing Felicity the men he wanted to investigate further. "Felicity, do you think it'll be an issue?" Oliver turned his head and saw why it was exactly that Felicity hadn't interrupted him once. She was fast asleep, leaning on her elbow and resting up against him. "Felicity!"

She started violently, glasses slipping down her nose and coming awake immediately. "What? What happened?"

"You fell asleep," said Oliver in vexation.

"No, I didn't," said Felicity indignantly.

"You were drooling."

Felicity quickly wiped the sides of her mouth and looked embarrassed. "That's just something I do when I'm listening really hard."

Oliver sat back in his seat and gave her a hard look. "Alright then, what was the last thing I just said?"

"Said."

His lips tightened. "Before that."

"Felicity."

_Okay, this game wasn't getting him anywhere._ "I've been talking for the last ten minutes and you haven't heard a word of it, have you?"

"You have a very soothing voice," said Felicity defensively. "You should do those audio kid's book. Seriously, it's very lulling."

"Felicity," he said in exasperation.

"Okay, yes, I may have nodded off ever so slightly but that doesn't mean I haven't got your back," she said hastily. "Whatever you need, I'll make it happen."

"I'd just hate to think I was boring you," said Oliver sarcastically. He'd never had a woman fall asleep while he was talking to her before. It was hard not to be a bit put out. Was mind-numbingly dull on that list of Felicity's in his con's column?

"You weren't," said Felicity quickly. "I think it was the combination of the tea and cheesecake. I think it has a narcotic effect."

"I can categorically state that it doesn't."

"You don't know that, you're not a chemist."

"Fine, whatever, I'll go over the plan again tonight, at the Foundry with you and Diggle together." Oliver pocketed his phone and took a gulp of his coffee, finishing it off. "We should go." He slipped out of the booth and stood up.

Felicity followed suit. "Are you sulking?"

"I'm a grown man. Grown men don't sulk. I just thought someone else could use this booth seeing as we're done and the place is still packed."

"Your community-mindedness expression is a lot like your sulking expression," noted Felicity.

"I don't have a sulking expression because I don't sulk," said Oliver sternly. He took her arm and pulled her closer to him so that they could navigate their way out of the overflowing café.

"If you say so." They were outside now and Felicity gave a heavy sigh.

"What is it?"

"I'm thirsty."

Oliver just stared at her.

Felicity held up her hand. "Hey, no one told me green tea tastes like urine. If I'd known that, I'd have ordered a smoothie."

"There is water back at the office," said Oliver flatly and started to walk back to the car.

"You know what the documentary I watched said about coffee and mood swings?" asked Felicity, having to trot to keep up with him. Oliver turned around and looked at her. Felicity gave him an innocent smile. "It's just something you might want to look into… you know, for future reference."

"My moods aren't swinging and even if they were, at least I can stay awake during a ten minute conversation." They were at the car and Oliver opened the car door for her.

"Are you still obsessing over that?" asked Felicity in exasperation. "I said I was sorry."

"No, you didn't and it was like, three minutes ago. You're making it sound like it was three months ago."

"It would be, if we were dogs." Felicity took a seat in the passenger seat of the car.

Oliver stared down at her. "I have no response to give to that comment."

"That must be a bummer," noted Felicity idly as she did up her seatbelt. "Number eight on the con's list – always likes to have the last word."

Oliver scowled at her. "No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

Oliver opened his mouth to continue the argument but closed it again, realizing he'd be shooting his own protests in the foot by saying anything else. He slammed the car door shut instead and walked around to the other side of the car, climbing into the driver's seat.

Felicity pushed her glasses up her nose and settled back in the seat. "Just so you know, a door slam is a non-verbal kind of last word."

"Something non-verbal can't be a word by its very definition," said Oliver in agitation. "It's oxymoronic."

Felicity turned her head and looked at him with a vaguely knowing smile. "And is that your last word on the subject, Mr. Queen?"

"You're driving me crazy today, do you know that?" he ground out.

Felicity coughed into her hand and spoke at the same time. "Last word."

"I swear to God, I am seconds away from making you walk back to the office." Oliver jerked on the wheel and pulled out into traffic. Unfortunately, due to being distracted, he didn't check his mirrors properly and a passing car clipped the front of his car. It was only a small collision but the damage bill on his BMW wasn't going to reflect that.

Felicity just looked at him. "You know this means I'm going to have move your driving skills from the pro's to the con's list, right?"

"Don't tell me anything more about this list of yours, okay?" Oliver snapped. "I don't want to know."

Felicity just shrugged and smiled at him. "You're the boss."

Oliver grunted, not feeling particularly in charge of anything right then. Felicity never used to be this much of a distraction to him. He hoped it was a trend which wasn't going to continue as he climbed out of the car to deal with the driver of the other vehicle.

As Oliver was about to discover over the coming days however, that would turn out to be a vain hope…

**A/N****: Okay, so that was just a warm up chapter, we get into the real mystery in the next chapter. I always figured Olicity would have a playful kind of relationship in between all of the fighting for your life business. I'm just filling in the blanks as I see fit. God bless fanfiction for that little perk of the job. :D **

**Now then, is anyone interested in wanting to know what happens next, or are you all lining up to bill me to get back the five minutes of your life back? (Ha, suckers! Read the fine print, no refunds – you're screwed!) **

**Hmm… probably shouldn't end an A/N with the word 'screwed', not when I'm trying to garner interest in the next chapter. How about his for the last word instead… mellifluous.**

**(If you don't know what it means, look it up and then use it to make yourself feel vastly superior to your friends and family and make them feel like uneducated idiots… trust me, there is no way that plan could go horribly wrong). **

**Please Note****: Alienating your friends and family by being a complete dick will most likely go horribly wrong. You probably shouldn't do that. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N****: Holy Incredible Response, Batman! I know, I know, that's a Batman/Robin thing but as far as I'm aware, Green Arrow doesn't have a catch cry… but hey, I kept it in the DC world, that's something, right? Although I do feel a little whorish as I've gone steady with the Marvel word with some of my other stories. Now I'm going out with Marvel's brother/arch nemesis, DC… it's going to make the next family get together pretty awkward… at least until Uncle Frank gets into the homemade beer he brewed in his bathtub. After that, it's pretty much just everyone trying to keep him away from small animals and open flames. **

**I was blown away by the epic response to my first chapter – you're all chock full of creamy fabulousness, deep fried in awesomeness and rolled in sugary amazingness… bottom line, you're my cardiologist's worst nightmare… but that only makes me love you all the more. 3 I won't tell Dr Chin if you don't… we can be each other's dirty little secret. ;) Mmm… life-shortening secret pacts… **

**The only trouble now is that I feel pressure to actually produce the goods… dang, did not see that one coming! Consequently, I'm not that thrilled with this chapter. It has a fair bit of exposition, moving the story along but I feel like something is missing… only I don't know what… which makes it particularly difficult to look for it… the missing thing, I mean. But never mind, if my fad dieting experiences have taught me anything, it's to use that block of chocolate as a paddle to eat the last of the Chunky Monkey ice cream directly out of the carton (bowls trap calories, from the carton is way better, everyone knows that) and then get back into the diet the next day like the piranha-like feeding frenzy of the night before never happened. Meaning, I'll try and do better in Chapter Three… I have some fun ideas and you'll be thrilled to know that only half of them revolve around urine… yes, I am not a one trick pony… I can diversify when it comes to bodily functions. Speaking of which, as I typed that, my little Silky Terrier, Mabel, who is asleep beside me, just passed gas (possibly mustard gas, mental note, must review what I'm feeding her… my eyes are stinging, silent but deadly indeed), as though on cue. Sure, I can't teach her to sit, come or any of those common place tricks but if Crufts ever starts a flatulence category to their esteemed dog show, we're in with a real chance! **

**Hmm… wander a little off topic there… what was I talking about? Never mind, I'm sure it wasn't important. But, let's crack on with the next chapter while we're here, eh? I'll see you at the end, we'll chat and besides, I've got to return some of the stuff I boosted from your room in the first chapter. Turns out it doesn't go with any of my decore. Bummer. **

**CHAPTER TWO**

Diggle looked up as Oliver walked into his office and just stood there. He arched an eyebrow at his friend. "There you are. Did you forget I'm meant to be driving you to that meeting up town this afternoon?"

"I didn't forget," said Oliver distractedly.

Diggle looked him over. "What's wrong?"

"That's a great question," said Oliver flatly.

"Do I get a great answer in reply?"

"I was sitting at my desk and notice Felicity was gone from hers."

"I guess that's the benefit of glass walls between you two," noted Diggle.

"She was gone for over half an hour."

"Okay."

"I went looking for her and found her in the photocopying room."

Diggle made a face. "The beginning of your story was intriguing but if I'm honest, the ending was a bit of a letdown."

"Diggle, she was asleep."

"In the photocopying room?"

"_On_ the photocopier," Oliver corrected him.

Diggle frowned. "What does that mean?"

"I mean she was bent over on the thing, face down, fast asleep, standing up." Oliver waved his hand around, still not quite sure he'd seen what he'd seen. "You know, like a horse."

"Horses aren't big on photocopying." Diggle made a pawing motion with his hand. "It's the hooves, can't operate the buttons."

Oliver scowled at his flippancy. "I meant the standing up sleeping thing. Don't you think that's weird?"

"I think it's weird that you're stalking Felicity," observed Diggle.

Oliver sent him an annoyed look. "I'm not stalking, Felicity."

"How many other places did you check before you ended up in the photocopier room?"

"Two," said Oliver shortly and then relented when Diggle just stared him down. "Okay, fine, seven."

"Was one of those places the lady's room?"

Oliver glared at him. "She could have fallen or something," he said defensively.

"Is that something we have to worry about now? Felicity falling and not being able to get back up?" asked Diggle in consternation.

"I don't know, maybe," said Oliver in exasperation. "She's currently sleeping on a photocopier. Something is wrong with her."

"Something is wrong with you that you feel the need to track her every movement."

"That is not what I'm doing," snapped Oliver. "My assistant goes missing for half a day, I'm going to go and look for her."

"I thought you said it was half an hour."

"It took me half an hour to find her. So that makes an hour."

Diggle folded his arms in front of his chest. "Two things. First of all, you really suck at hide and seek, never take it up professionally."

Oliver glared at him.

"Two, an hour is not half a day, at least, not on this planet."

"You know what I mean," said Oliver in irritation. "Felicity hasn't been herself lately. She's always tired. Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

Diggle gave a little shrug. "She's given up coffee. Maybe that's it, misses the caffeine boost."

"How much was she having that she now sleeps standing up without it?" asked Oliver in annoyance.

"I don't think that's a permanent thing on Felicity's behalf. The sleeping standing up stuff, I mean. I'm sure she normally sleeps in a bed, lying down."

Oliver wasn't convinced. "Has she said anything to you?"

"About what?"

"I don't know," said Oliver in frustration. "Anything."

Diggle thought for a moment. "She was thinking of getting more blonde highlights put into her hair."

Oliver look was full of annoyance. "How is that helpful?"

"You said anything."

"Anything which will tell me what is wrong with her," bit out Oliver.

"Personally, I don't think that there is anything wrong with Felicity but if you do, why don't you ask her yourself?" Diggle glanced at his watch. "But it's going to have to wait until you get back from that meeting. If we don't leave now, we're never going to make it through traffic in time."

Oliver made a little grunt of acknowledgement, not really in the mood for a business meeting but knowing he really didn't have a choice. "Fine, let's go." He turned and headed towards the door.

Diggle was right behind him. "Oh, and what happened to the BMW? There is a big chunk taken out of its front bumper."

"There was an incident," said Oliver vaguely.

"Felicity said you pulled out into traffic without looking."

Oliver side eyed him. "Why did you ask if you already knew the answer?"

Diggle smiled. "I just like hearing you admit to screwing things up now and then. It warms the cockles of my heart."

"Your cockles aren't my concern," he said in ire. "And it wasn't my fault. Felicity distracted me."

"A recurring theme of late, it seems." Diggle jerked his head towards the other end of the corridor. "The garage is this way."

Oliver glared at him and turned around, heading back towards the other man. "I know that. I was just—"

"Taking a run up at it?" offered up Diggle innocently.

"If you can't be helpful, can you at least be silent?" muttered Oliver as he joined Diggle in the elevator.

Diggle just smiled as the elevator doors closed. "Now, where is the fun in that?"

#

Two hours later Oliver was back in the office and standing in front of Felicity's desk which Felicity was actually at this time. However, she was fast asleep again. Oliver stared at the top of her blonde head and just knew something wasn't right. He opened his mouth to say her name but the phone rang instead.

Felicity jerked awake and automatically reached for the phone. "Oliver Queen's aaarrkk!" She gave a little squawk of surprise at seeing him standing right in front of her. Felicity pushed up her glasses and glared up at him. "You scared me." Her attention was back on the caller. "Sorry, no, not you, Mr. Styles. Yes, he's in, I'll put you right through." Felicity pressed the on hold button. "It's your accountant. I'll put it through to your desk."

"Tell him I'll call him back."

"But you're standing right here."

"I'll call him back."

Felicity gave up. She took the call off hold. "I'm sorry, Mr. Styles but Mr. Queen is busy right now. Can I take a message? Okay, I'll let him know." Felicity looked up at him. "Your accountant called," she said flatly.

"Felicity, can I talk to you?"

She hesitated. "Isn't that what we're doing now?"

"You were asleep at your desk."

"No, I wasn't, I was just thinking," said Felicity quickly.

"You were snoring."

"No, I wasn't!" she gasped and then grimaced. "Was I?"

"It was more of a gentle buzzing but it was definitely a noise someone who is awake doesn't make." Oliver looked at her intently. "You want to tell me what is going on?"

"I was proof reading financial reports." Felicity screwed up her face. "It's like a general anesthesia – everything goes black and suddenly you're asleep. It's like the ultimate cure for insomnia."

Oliver might have believed her story if he hadn't already caught Felicity napping several times over the last week or so. He stared at her, willing her to tell him the truth but Felicity just kept looking up at him expectantly.

"Was there anything else you needed?" she asked brightly.

"Why don't you take the night off tonight?" said Oliver, trying another tack. "We've all been working hard lately and I think we deserve a break. The Arrow stuff can wait a night."

"Okay, sure," said Felicity. "Sounds good. I could do with a night in."

Oliver smiled pleasantly. "Me too." He turned and walked back to his office. Okay, the direct approach hadn't worked, time for Plan B.

#

Hours later, Oliver was sitting in his parked car. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

"Hello?"

"Hey Felicity, it's me."

"Oliver, is something wrong? Do you need me to come in?"

"No," he said quickly, "everything's fine. I was just ringing to see how your night off was going."

"Oh," said Felicity in surprise, "it's going fine."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm just eating a pizza and watching a movie."

"At home?"

Felicity laughed. "Yes, the neighbors get weird when I do it at their place."

Oliver looked up at the darkened windows which belonged to Felicity's apartment. He'd been parked in her street for twenty minutes and there hadn't been any sign of life inside. "I guess they would." Oliver's pleasant tone belied his stony expression. She was lying to him. Felicity was lying to him. "What's the movie?"

"Oh, umm, Die Hard, the third one, I think. I don't know, they all kinda looked the same after the first one to me."

"Well, I'll leave you to your evening. Get some rest, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

Oliver hung up and expelled a long breath. So, if Felicity wasn't at home, then where was she and what was she doing that she felt she had to lie to him about it? Oliver's jaw hardened. He didn't like this, not one little bit and he was going to get to the bottom of what exactly Felicity was keeping from him.

#

The following night, Oliver was hanging upside down from a metal bar and doing mid-air sit ups. An upside down Felicity kept coming into his line of vision every time he released the stomach crunch. She was working at her computer, her back to him. Oliver swapped his hold on the bar, now moving into position to do chin ups. "You know," he puffed, a little out of breath from his work out, "nothing is really going on tonight. You should take an early night."

Felicity twisted in her seat and looked up at him as he continued his reps. "Two early nights in a row," she remarked teasingly. "What is the world coming to?"

Oliver hung from the bar and looked down at her. "We may as well take advantage of the quiet times when we can," he observed. "Diggle is doing recon on the Russians tonight, strictly observation only. There isn't much else for us to do."

"You going home too?"

Oliver dropped from the bar and landed deftly on his feet. "I'm going to get a little target practice in and then head off."

"Alright, you don't need me for that." Felicity stood up and grabbed her coat and bag.

Oliver couldn't help but notice how eager she seemed to be to leave.

Felicity smiled at him as she walked by. "Don't stay too long. I know how you get with you and your bow and arrows."

"I'll just put in an hour or so," said Oliver easily as he walked over to pick up his bow and quiver and started to aim a series of arrows at the back wall where he'd marked out a target. "Goodnight."

"Night, Oliver," said Felicity, as she walked up the stairs.

Oliver kept firing arrows until he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore and then he immediately dropped his bow and raced to grab his shirt and jacket. He leapt up the side of the wall and up onto the window ledge, peering out onto the street below. Oliver watched Felicity climb into her car and drive off to the end of the alleyway and then, instead of taking a left which would have her heading in the direction of her apartment, she turned right. He jumped down from the window and outside onto the concrete and ran to a row of trash cans. Oliver wheeled out the motor bike he'd stashed away behind them earlier that day and jumped on, pulling on the helmet which had been hanging over the handle bars. He started up the bike and took off down the alleyway, following Felicity's path.

Oliver followed Felicity's car at a safe distance, weaving in amongst the night traffic. They were heading to a seedier side of town, even worse than where the Foundry was located. It wasn't long before they were in an area famous for brothels, bars and generalized bad behavior. Oliver scowled behind his helmet. What could Felicity possibly be doing in a place like this? He watched her car up ahead as it pulled off into a side alley. Oliver parked his bike across the street and watched her get out of the car. She walked out onto the street and made a beeline for the entrance of the business next door to the alley. "She's not going in there," he muttered to himself. But then Felicity smiled at the large man working the door and then disappeared inside. Oliver blinked. Did he just watch Felicity Smoak go into the Fallen Angel, one of the more infamous strip clubs of Starling City? Oliver blinked again. Maybe she was lost and asking for directions? It was a faint hope and Oliver clung to it for dear life because he couldn't think of any other good reason for Felicity to be in a strip club except for the one he refused to think about.

#

Oliver stood in his office, staring out with unseeing eyes at the cityscape below him as Diggle gave him a rundown of the last few days of his surveillance.

"The main guy, Petrov, he seems to be the one who is running the show but he is definitely getting his orders from higher up," recounted Diggle as he flipped through his notes. "The guy has a lot of protection on him at all times but I get a definite middle management feeling from him. I think it's probably better to wait and work out who his boss is before we make any kind of move, know what we're dealing with before jumping in. He's got this girlfriend who might be a way in, she doesn't have as much security on her—"

Oliver listened to Diggle's running commentary without really taking anything in. After sitting outside the Fallen Angel for four hours the other night before Felicity had reappeared, Oliver had been forced to abandon his asking for directions theory. His next theory was that it was just a one off and maybe she was visiting an old school friend or something but the last three nights he'd followed her to the club and spent multiple hours waiting for Felicity to reemerge. The friend angle seemed less than plausible after that. Another theory shot down. Oliver was well aware he was circling around the most obvious reason Felicity would be frequenting a strip club because his brain literally couldn't go there. It was ridiculous and impossible and Felicity would never do what he was determined never to think about.

"There is a series of dry cleaning businesses which I think are being used as fronts too—" Diggle looked up from his notes to see Oliver still staring out the window.

"Uh huh," grunted Oliver distractedly.

Diggle pursed his lips and looked Oliver over. "Yeah, turns out it's a front for ferret racing, that's a huge thing in Russia. They use gerbils as the jockeys, think they staple the little guys on to keep them on the ferret's backs. It's kinda cruel, but damn if their little jockey outfits aren't as cute as hell."

"I see," murmured Oliver, hands in his pockets and still staring blankly down at the city below.

Diggle widened his stance and folded his arms in front of his chest, lips twisting. "Oh yeah, it's a huge business. You should see some of the guys coming into throw down some serious money on those little furry bastards. Why, in one night I saw Hillary Clinton, Kanyae West and Kermit the Frog go through the door. I think I was most surprised to see Santa Claus there though, but then when I thought about it, the guy only has one gig a year, so I can see him having a lot of free time on his hands for the rest of the year. Why not spend some of that time betting on ferrets with gerbils stapled to their backs, right? Who am I to judge?"

"Right," said Oliver absently and then he suddenly turned his head and looked intently at Diggle. "What was that about judging?"

"Oh, you're back with me, are you?" asked Diggle dryly. "I was beginning to think I was going to have to set something alight to get your attention."

"I was paying attention," said Oliver shortly. He scowled. "Did you say something about gerbils?"

Diggle rolled his eyes. "Oliver, what is going on with you lately?"

"Nothing," said Oliver, turning away from the window and facing the other man.

"Is it about Felicity?"

Oliver's scowl deepened. "No, why would it be about Felicity? Wait, did she say something to you?"

"About what? You being all vague and distracted all of a sudden?"

"That's not what I'm being," said Oliver shortly. He hesitated. "Why? Did she say I was vague and distracted?"

"No,_ I_ said that," said Diggle wryly, "just then, try and keep up." He smiled sweetly at Oliver. "But if you really want to know what Felicity is thinking about you, I can pass her a note in gym class."

"Everyone's a comedian all of a sudden," said Oliver flatly. "This is no joking matter."

"What isn't? I thought you said nothing was wrong."

"It isn't," said Oliver quickly. He couldn't tell Diggle about Felicity's late night adventures, not until he'd figured them out for himself.

"Just like nothing is wrong with Felicity either, huh?"

"What makes you think something is wrong with Felicity?" asked Oliver sharply. He gave Diggle a hard look. Could Felicity have already confided in Diggle about what she was doing? Why would she tell Diggle and not him and why wouldn't Diggle tell him if he knew Felicity was doing something dangerous? Oliver's head was starting to hurt as all the questions chased themselves around in his head.

"It was probably the conversation we had where you said you thought something was wrong with Felicity," said Diggle wryly. "Although, I gotta say, I'm a bit more worried about you then her right now."

"I'm fine," snapped Oliver. "There is nothing wrong with me."

"You know you missed shaving half your beard today, right?"

Oliver put a quick hand up to his face and felt a large patch of bristles along one jawline. "Damn it!" He glared at Diggle. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I thought you were going for a new look," said Diggle innocently. "Don't worry about it, you're ridiculously rich, sporting half a beard makes you delightfully quirky as opposed to, you know, homeless guy living in a box."

Oliver growled his disapproval and stalked off to his adjoining executive bathroom, looking for the electric razor he kept there.

Diggle followed him, lounging against the bathroom wall and watching Oliver quickly shaving off the offending stubble. "You know, I don't think you should be out on the street while you're like this. Maybe you should hang up your hood for the next couple of days until you've got all your ducks in a row again?"

"My ducks are in a row," ground out Oliver. Except for one little duck who had taken up frequenting strip joints. Oliver's hand tightened on the razor. There had to be a logical explanation for all of this. He was just missing something obvious.

Diggle sighed heavily. "Look, Oliver, I don't' know what is going on with you but your head is definitely not in the game and that worries me."

"I'm fine," said Oliver shortly, throwing down his razor and walking back out of the bathroom.

"You and I have very different interpretations of that word."

Oliver turned to face him. "We need to keep on this Russian thing. That's a priority. I'm handling the Felicity thing."

"There is a Felicity thing now?" asked Diggle in consternation.

"No, of course not," said Oliver hastily. "I just meant that we all need to be working on this together, as a team. I'll come out with you tonight, see what we can dig up."

Diggle didn't look enthused about the idea. "Maybe I should go alone?"

"I've got this, I know what I'm doing." At least out on the streets Oliver felt in charge of the situation. On the domestic front he was a little more at sea. But then, why was he letting this bother him so much? Felicity was a grown woman, she was free to make her own choices in life, who was he to judge? If Felicity had business at a strip club, what was that to him? They were all good questions but the bottom line was that it did matter to Oliver. He had to find out what Felicity was doing with her nights when she wasn't with him and why. Until he did, Oliver was beginning to realize he wasn't going to have a clear thought in his head, despite his protestations to Diggle.

"Famous last words if ever I heard them," said Diggle in exasperation.

Oliver wasn't fazed. On the street, wearing the hood, he knew what he was doing. It was familiar and brought an odd kind of comfort to him. Navigating relationships with people, that was the tricky and dangerous thing in his mind. A night spent doing something he didn't have to think about would give him a welcome break from worrying about Felicity. Plus, he knew Felicity wouldn't go anywhere while he and Diggle were out in the field and Oliver intended to make it a long night, so there would be no opportunity for Felicity to go anywhere afterwards. His plan was a win/win one. Oliver felt confident he had all the angles covered. Nothing was going to go wrong, he was sure of it.

_Famous last words indeed_.

**A/N****: So, anyone got any theories as to what Felicity is up to? Could Oliver's worst fears be confirmed? Would I do something like that to our good girl Felicity? I just drew eyebrows on my other dog, Tilly-Pearl, while she was sleeping – I have no boundaries or moral compass, so you know I would! Hope to see you all in the next chapter where I can promise partial nudity… now, whether it will be mine or someone in the story… only one way to find out. ;) **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N****: Posting and running today, peeps. I've just taken delivery of a new washer and dryer and I'm off to unpack it and figure out how they work… yes, my life really is that action packed, hard to believe, I know. Then I'm off to work to pay for said washer and dryer. Ah… the cycle of life. (See what I did there – cycle, washing machine, wash cycle… yeah, I realize that if I have to explain a quip, it probably doesn't deserve to be called a quip in the first place… don't harsh my cleaning buzz, dudes). **

**Apart from that, I just want to thank everyone again who reviewed, faved and followed this story. My cup overflows with your collective awesomeness… messy, I know and kinda dirty sounding but you won't hear any complaints from me. :D **

**This chapter is nothing but fluff and tropes as far as the eye can see. Sorry, but I make no apologies for that. 0:) I hope you enjoy and I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter because… well, I do love a feisty Felicity. But wait, I've said too much, I don't want to tip my hand too early. Instead, I will wrap my cape around me in a dramatic fashion and slink off looking suitably mysterious and enigmatic to return at a later date… I will return… **

**CHAPTER THREE**

Oliver reached for his pen to sign a document but knock it off his desk instead. Without thinking he bent down to retrieve it and then was forced to give a grunt of pain as the new wound on his chest complained bitterly. He straightened up with the pen and put his other hand to his chest. Okay, so maybe last night hadn't gone as smoothly as he anticipated. The abandoned warehouse he and Diggle had been checking out wasn't so much abandoned as infested with bad guys. They'd walked right into the middle of some kind of torturing session. The already ugly mood grew decidedly worse from that point on. By the end of the scuffle they'd rescued the victim and dealt with the mobsters, so it hadn't been a complete disaster. It was just that Oliver hadn't wanted to show his hand quite this early on. But ultimately it didn't matter, they'd regroup and adjust their tactics, it wasn't a big deal. He looked up as Felicity walked into his office, carrying a couple of white bags.

She frowned as she walked towards him. "Is your chest bothering you?"

Oliver dropped his hand down from his chest and shook his head. "No."

"That wound really needed stitches," she said disapprovingly as she took a seat across from him and set down the white boxes of food.

"The dressing you did was fine," said Oliver dismissively. "It wasn't bad."

"You took a machete to the chest," said Felicity unhappily.

"It just grazed me."

"I still don't understand what happened."

"I was on a landing and it gave way under my weight." Oliver scowled. "That building was definitely not up to code."

"Gee, a derelict warehouse that wasn't up to city code," said Felicity sarcastically. "How is that even possible?" She shook her head at him. "You could have broken your neck when you fell."

"I didn't fall, it was a controlled, rapid descent."

"Diggle used the word 'plummet' when he described it," said an unconvinced Felicity.

"I didn't plummet," said Oliver defensively. "I was in control the whole time."

"Is that why you landed on top of two Russian mobsters?" asked Felicity sweetly, handing him a plate.

"They broke my fall," said Oliver unapologetically. "And besides, they weren't the problem, it was the guy I didn't fall on that had the machete." He'd been caught trying to untangle himself from the two men he'd knocked unconscious by dropping on their heads when the third man had come at him with the deadly weapon. Oliver wasn't about to admit how close he'd come to taking that large blade directly between the eyes rather than a cut to the chest. "What's on the menu today?"

"Nice, subtle subject change," said Felicity wryly as she handed him a pair of chopsticks. "It's the lunch special from Mr Ping's - Nam tok and Khao phat kung." She peered into one of the boxes. "And there is extra shrimp in the Khao phat kung. They always give me extra shrimp and I don't know why."

Oliver looked at Felicity as he snapped his chopsticks apart and knew exactly why the gorgeous blonde woman sitting across from him always got more shrimp. "Yeah, it's a real mystery," he said dryly, patiently waiting with his chopsticks poised as he let Felicity dish out her food first. It was the very fact that Felicity was so unaware of her own charms that made her so endearingly, well, charming. She had little idea of the effect she had on men and her innocence was something that always struck Oliver in these kinds of situations. Felicity would probably be outraged that he thought of her in such a way. She was always so determined to be seen as an equal but the truth was that she wasn't as world weary and hardened as everyone else in his life and Oliver treasured that. He cherished her innocence and lack of guile because it compensated for his deficiency in both. Felicity saw it as making her less than the others but Oliver knew the opposite was true, she was more than all of them put together because of it. That was why he couldn't comprehend the thought of Felicity actually working in a strip club. The thought of her walking around in practically nothing while men leered at her and imagined doing unspeakable things to her was an unacceptable one. The mental image of low life men pawing at Felicity, touching her and wanting her to… the chopsticks in his hand snapped in two as Oliver's grip unintentionally tightened on them to breaking point.

Felicity gave a little gasp of surprise. "Oh, what happened?"

Oliver looked at the broken chopsticks in his hand, imagining himself driving them through the heart of any guy he caught doing anything like that to Felicity. "I guess they don't make them like they use to."

"I guess they don't," said Felicity, taking them from his hand. "Lucky I always think ahead and I've got more." She dug into the white bag and drew out another set, handing them to him.

"Thanks." Oliver forced himself to relax. He wasn't going to get anywhere driving himself crazy with thoughts of Felicity being sexually objectified by drunk and horny men. Instead, Oliver was going to try and be logical about this. Felicity wasn't the sort of woman who'd be comfortable taking her clothes off for money, so, that meant she had to be doing something else at that club until the wee hours of the morning. The obvious thought was working on their computer system but she'd been going there for weeks now and no strip club had that much of a complicated computer system. Maybe she was doing their books instead? Trying to get some extra cash on the side. Oliver wasn't sure how much he paid her and he was even less sure of the cost of living these days but maybe Felicity needed to supplement her income and bookkeeping seemed an obvious choice to him. He tried to introduce the subject as casually as possible, dishing out his own plate of food now. "So, those financials you were going over the other day – how did they read?"

"Besides narcolepsy-inducing?" asked Felicity wryly. "Okay, I guess. I'm not really up on accounts."

"You're not?"

"No." Felicity wrinkled her nose. "I can't even balance my check book. Tragic, I know."

Okay, so bookkeeping was off the list but there were other jobs in a strip joint other than the obvious. Oliver swallowed his mouthful of food. "You know, you've never told me much about your college days."

Felicity looked at him over the top of her glasses. "You've never asked."

He gave an offhanded shrug. "Well, I'm asking now. Did you work while you were at college?"

"I had to eat, so yeah, I worked," said Felicity dryly.

"Doing what? Bartending or something?" Felicity could be working the bar at the Fallen Angel. Not ideal but at least the position was a fully clothed one.

"I worked in a bookstore." Felicity poked at her food with her chopsticks. "You know how sometimes kids follow in their parent's footsteps and sometimes they go the completely opposite way? I really didn't want to turn out like my Mom, so I never wanted to do any kind of waitressing or bar work." She wrinkled her nose. "I guess it was my way of rebelling. I know that sounds dumb."

"It doesn't sound dumb at all," said Oliver, thinking of his rebellions against his parents.

"So yeah," said Felicity, "not really up on the alcoholic beverages thing. All I know is that you keep vodka in the freezer and a Long Island Iced Tea has tea in it."

"Long Island Iced Tea doesn't have any tea in it," Oliver informed her.

Felicity looked at him in disbelief. "It doesn't?"

"Vodka, gin, tequila and rum but no tea."

Felicity threw up a hand. "Isn't that false advertising or something?"

Oliver smiled. "I think you're the first person to complain about the misrepresentation."

"Okay, fine, now I only know one thing about alcoholic beverages then," said Felicity in vague ire. "The freezing vodka thing is right thought, isn't it?"

"Yes." So, it was highly unlikely Felicity was working behind the bar with that kind of limited understanding of mixing drinks. Oliver's list was dwindling of acceptable scenarios. It was coming down to the wire. He was trying to be an adult about all of this and accept that Felicity was also an adult who had a perfect right to live her life the way she saw fit. It wasn't any of his business. It was great in theory but Oliver had this sinking feeling that instead of letting things be, he was going to end up doing something dumb when it came to this whole situation.

Felicity cocked her head and regarded him curiously. "What is this?"

"What is what?"

"This, what is it that you're doing?"

Oliver shrugged. "I'm making small talk."

"You don't do that."

"Yes, I do, I make small talk."

Felicity shook her head. "No, you're a straight to the point kinda guy. It's all, 'let's storm that castle', 'can't talk, training' and silent, intense staring. You don't do small talk."

Oliver frowned at her assessment of him. "Maybe I'm trying to add to my skill set."

Felicity looked him over. "Okay," she said slowly, "but just so you know, it's a little unnerving."

"What's unnerving about me asking you about your life?" he protested.

"Because you've never really done it before," offered up Felicity.

Oliver's expression darkened, not liking how that made him sound. "That's not true."

"It's okay, Oliver," said Felicity easily. "It's not like my life was that interesting before I met you. There isn't much to talk about."

"No dark secrets you're hiding then?" Oliver watched Felicity's expressive face intently.

She suddenly avoided looking at him. "No, of course not," said Felicity quickly… too quickly.

"Because, if there were, you know you can tell me, right?" Oliver pushed her.

Felicity looked back at him, her expression suddenly pained. "We don't have to tell each other every little thing we do in our lives, right?"

"You know everything I do in mine," he said huskily.

Felicity bit her bottom lip and looked worried. "I just don't want you to think less of me."

Oliver quickly reached out and covered her hand with his. "Felicity, there is nothing you could say or do that would ever make me think less of you," he said earnestly. "You have to know that. You can tell me anything, I won't judge you, I promise."

Felicity looked torn as Oliver held his breath. "I knit," she finally blurted out.

Oliver just stared at her. "What?"

"Knit," she repeated, miming the action with her chopsticks. "It's my hobby in my downtime, helps me relax."

"You knit," repeated Oliver unevenly. This was not the secret he'd been hoping she'd share with him.

"I know, like a little old lady," said Felicity, looking embarrassed. "I just really like the repetitive motion. I can put my brain on hold and just knit."

Oliver sat back in his chair and just stared at her. "Felicity, there is nothing wrong with knitting things."

"Thing," she corrected him. "I only knit one thing. I never learned how to do patterns or anything, I just knit back and forth."

"You mean, like with a scarf?"

Felicity pursed her lips. "I guess you could call it a scarf. I never learned to end off with my knitting either, so I just keep knitting and adding on different balls of wool that catch my eye. I've only ever made the one thing."

"How long have you been knitting for?"

"A started in college, to give my brain a rest from all that study."

"And you've been knitting the one scarf this whole time?" asked Oliver, intrigued. "Just how big is this scarf anyways?"

Felicity looked to be thinking. "Last time I checked, about fifty feet long."

"Fifty feet?" he repeated in disbelief.

"I told you," said Felicity defensively, "I don't know how to end off." She grimaced. "You think I'm weird now, don't you?"

"I don't think you're weird," said Oliver hastily. "I'm just not sure what you're going to do with a fifty foot scarf."

"It's my place of Zen. It doesn't need to do or be anything else."

How can a girl who knits fifty foot scarves be okay with being paid to take her clothes off for men? None of this made sense to Oliver. He shook his head and smiled. "You're one of a kind, Felicity Smoak and more of an enigma then I've given you credit for."

"Knitting makes me enigmatic?" she asked in surprise.

"Amongst other things," said Oliver wryly.

"You're oozing," said Felicity in sudden concern.

Oliver followed her gaze, looking down at his chest to see a growing red stain soaking its way through his crisp dress shirt.

"I told you that cut needed stitches," fretted Felicity. She stood up. "Come on, let me take a closer look at that."

"It's okay, it doesn't hurt." That wasn't strictly true but Oliver didn't like to see Felicity worry over him, it made him feel guilty for putting her through that.

"Just come into the bathroom so I can clean you up," she ordered him.

Oliver obediently stood up and followed Felicity into his personal bathroom. When he'd first taken the office he'd thought the private washroom had been a bit of overkill but nowadays he was grateful for its facilities. He shrugged out of his coat as Felicity undid his necktie. "You've got blood on your tie too," she said in exasperation, pulling it from around his neck. She turned around and dropped the tie in the basin and then went to retrieve the first aid kit from under the counter. Oliver undid his shirt and shrugged out of it. Felicity took it and added it to the basin and then turned her attention back to his wound. She picked at the edge of the sticking plaster covering his wound. The formerly white bandage was now soaked red. Felicity peeled it away carefully and made a face at what she uncovered. "Oh Oliver."

Oliver looked down to see the edges of his cut were pulled open. "It'll be fine," he said dismissively. "Just use the butterfly stitches to pull it back together."

"I'd rather you have real stitches put in," grumbled Felicity as she gingerly began to clean the oozing blood from in and around the deep cut.

Felicity's face was close to his as she cleaned out his wound and while she was distracted with applying first aid, he took the opportunity to study her face carefully. "You've got glitter on you–aahhh!" He gave a hiss at the sting of peroxide hitting his open flesh.

"Sorry, I thought a surprise attack would be better," said Felicity quickly, wincing in sympathy with him.

He shook his head at her. "It's okay." Oliver lifted his hand touched her cheekbone, fingers gently touching the soft skin there.

Felicity jerked away in surprise, looking at him wide-eyed.

"I told you," said Oliver, turning his hand around so she could see the small sparkles on his fingertips, "glitter. How did that get there?" He held her gaze unblinkingly. _Tell me, please just tell me_. Oliver willed Felicity to come clean with him and then they could just talk and figure something out.

Felicity blinked as she looked at the incriminating evidence on his fingertips and looked suddenly nervous. "Ah… there was a street magician when I was coming back from Mr. Pings."

Oliver kept his expression unreadable but he could feel the vein pulsing in his forehead. "A street magician… throwing glitter at people's faces?" he said with heavy skepticism. _Damn it, why wouldn't Felicity just confide in him? _

"I didn't' say he was a good magician," she said defensively. Felicity hastily turned her attention back to her first aid, peeling off the backing of the butterfly stitches and carefully pulling the edges of the cut together to secure the wound.

Oliver watched her expression cloud over. "What's wrong?"

"I wish you didn't get hurt so much," said Felicity quietly, finishing with the butterfly stitches and putting a large sticking plaster over the entire wound.

"I don't get hurt that often," he protested.

Serious blue eyes met his. "Yes, you do."

"It's not a big deal," said Oliver, not liking seeing Felicity upset about something that he couldn't do anything about.

Felicity turned away abruptly and walked over to the counter, opening the cupboard door underneath. She pulled out a fresh white dress shirt, still in its wrapper and started to open it.

"Felicity?"

She handed him the shirt. "Yes?"

"You don't need to worry about me," he said sincerely. "A few cuts and bruises aren't a big deal in the grand scheme of things."

Felicity pressed her lips together into a thin line. "Would you say that if it was me or Diggle being constantly hurt?"

"Of course not but I've made my choices about the kind of life I want to lead," he said seriously. "And that means taking the good with the bad." Oliver pulled on his shirt but didn't immediately button it up.

"You know sometimes I think—" Felicity stopped abruptly and looked away.

Oliver frowned. "Sometimes you think what?"

Felicity looked back at him and Oliver was taken aback by the fierceness he could see in her eyes. "Sometimes I think you want to get hurt, like it's your penance or something for all the things you've had to do in your life, for the people who have gotten hurt around you."

Oliver's eyes widened a little. "I don't want to get hurt, Felicity, that's crazy."

She held his gaze defiantly. "Yeah, but when you do, isn't there some part of you that feels like you deserve it? Like it's some kind of cosmic payback for surviving when so many other people you know haven't."

"I-I… no, that isn't how I think about it," he said unevenly.

"Do you think about it at all?" Felicity challenged him. "Why is everyone else's safety more important to you then your own?"

Oliver struggled to find an answer to her question. Felicity was right, he'd never really thought about it before.

Felicity blew out a frustrated breath and turned on her heel, walking out of the bathroom, clearly upset. Oliver immediately followed, grabbing her hand and swinging her around. "Felicity, wait."

"Wait for what, Oliver?" she said sharply, looking up at him with suspiciously bright eyes. "For you to tell me it doesn't matter, that everything is going to be alright?"

"Well… yes," he said helplessly, "pretty much."

"You don't know that," said Felicity shakily.

Oliver took a step closer and tightened the hold on her hand. "I know that as long as I have you, my odds are way better than if I didn't have a Felicity Smoak in my life," he said frankly.

An expression Oliver couldn't read came over Felicity's face. "Oliver," she said unsteadily, "I need to tell you—"

A discrete clearing of the throat caught them both off guard and Oliver turned to see one of the other executive's secretary standing in the doorway of his office. Felicity immediately pulled her hand from his and took a hasty step back. Oliver knew it wasn't the other woman's fault but he couldn't help but glare at her for interrupting them at such an inopportune moment. "Yes?" he snapped.

The woman made a contrite face. "I'm sorry, I did knock but you must have been distracted." Her gaze lingered over Oliver's still open shirt. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Felicity's cheek blushing a bright red and he took a step towards the newcomer, shielding Felicity from the woman's prying eyes as he did. "What is it, Natalie?" he asked shortly, holding her gaze unapologetically as he unhurriedly did up his shirt.

"Mr. Nash would like to see you in his office when it's convenient," replied Natalie.

"And you couldn't call to ask for that?" asked Oliver impatiently.

"No one was answering the phone," said Natalie, her gaze drifting over his shoulder to where Felicity was standing silently.

Oliver squared his shoulders and drew her attention back to him. "Thank you, Natalie. Tell John I'll be there soon."

Natalie have him a bright smile. "Yes, Mr. Queen." She turned and walked back out of the office.

"Great," huffed Felicity once she was gone, "that's going to be all around the building before the elevator reaches the next floor. Natalie is the biggest gossip in this place."

"There is nothing for there to get around," said Oliver firmly. "We weren't doing anything."

"That's not how gossip works," said Felicity unhappily.

"And besides, it's none of her damn business."

Felicity gave a little snort. "Again, not how gossip works."

"I'll speak to her if that will make you feel better," Oliver offered.

"One, I don't need you to fight my office battles for me and two, that will only make things a hundred times worse." Felicity shrugged. "It'll blow over. Natalie will find out about Ivan and Edward's affair on the tenth floor and she'll have juicer fish to fry."

"Ivan and Edward?" repeated Oliver in surprise, tucking in his shirt tails. "Wait, didn't Ivan just get married?"

Felicity arched an eyebrow. "Like I said, juicer fish to fry." She turned to leave.

"What were you going to say to me before we were interrupted?" Oliver asked quickly.

Outside the office, the phone on Felicity's desk began to ring. Felicity gave a distracted look over her shoulder at it and then looked back at him. "It doesn't matter, it can wait," she said quickly. "I'd better get that."

Oliver took a step closer to her, not caring about the phone call right then. "Felicity—" but she was already gone, hurrying out to answer the phone, intent on not giving any more fodder for the gossips to chew on.

"Damn it," growled Oliver under his breath. So close and yet so far but he wasn't giving up. There was a solution to this problem and he'd just realized what it was. Oliver didn't know why it had taken so long to think of it but now that he had, he knew exactly what he needed to do. He hurried back to his desk and busied himself with making a phone call of his own…

**A/N****: I'm back! Damn cape got caught on the door knob, I nearly decapitated myself making a dramatic exit. Oh, the painful garroting irony of it all! **

**So, gratuitous semi-naked scene as promised because a day without seeing Stephen Amell's nipples is a day wasted IMO… even if you have to imagine them… which I know you were all doing during that scene. Nice, kiss your mother with that slutty brain, do you? (Okay, even I know that was a weird sentence). **

**Anyone got any ideas as to what Oliver's brilliant idea might be? If you guess right you get an imaginary T-shirt declaring you a legend. But you have to hurry, there is limited stock – I'm not made of imaginary T-shirts, you know! **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N****: Hello, my ducklings, so glad you could join me in this next chapter. A chapter, BTW, which was inspired by a comment from Gin2a – so you can all thank her, or throw stones at her, depending on your thoughts about this chapter. That's one of the big benefits of fanfiction to me – audience participation. Some of the things you guys say sparks something off in the muse and then she's off and running, having a gay old time. ;) It's brilliant, not least of which because I can claim your imagination as my own… and also blame you if it all goes pear-shaped. It's a win/win situation for me. Admittedly, it's more of a lose/lose situation for you guys but I guess that's how the creative cookie crumbles sometimes… in your bed… attracting ants. **

**So yeah, had some fun with this chapter and hopefully you will too. I'm late for work, so I must dash and before I go I have to work out why my new dryer is singing to me. It's surprisingly vocal and now I just need to figure out if its happy or got some kind of issue that it's trying to warn me about. Man, the joys of technology knows no bounds! **

**Toodles…**

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Oliver weaved his way through the press of bodies. The club was full, men standing at the bar, talking to the scantily clad girls who were milling around, other men surrounding a brightly lit elevated stage as a dark-haired beauty wrapped her body skillfully around a pole for their titillation. Oliver blinked, knowing that being here was a bad idea but he hadn't been able to stop himself. He needed to see for himself what Felicity was doing. Maybe then he could find some peace of mind. Even as Oliver tried to convince himself that might be true, he knew the likelihood of finding any kind of peace about this was highly unlikely, no matter what he did. A part of him was still clinging to the hope that this wasn't how it look. That there was a perfectly logical explanation which didn't involve Felicity turning herself into a sex object for men to leer at. But if there wasn't, and his worst suspicions were confirmed, what right did he have to stop Felicity? It was her life, her choice, her body. A lot of women stripped professionally for a lot of different reasons. It didn't make them bad people, far from it. The only trouble was this was Felicity and Oliver knew he'd never be able to believe she was doing this unless he saw it with his own eyes. And then what he was going to do with that information once he had it, Oliver had no idea. He took a seat by the stage, looking around the club for Felicity and couldn't see her.

"Would you like a drink?"

Oliver looked up to see a pretty red-head wearing an outfit which was barely there and holding a tray, smiling down at him.

"No, thank you," said Oliver but then he thought about why he was here and suddenly the idea of a little Dutch courage didn't seem like such a bad idea. "Actually, scratch that. I'll have a beer, just whatever you've got."

The pretty girl smiled and nodded. "I'll be right back."

Oliver glanced up at the woman who was now hanging upside down on the pole and then quickly looked away. It wasn't like he was a prude, far from it. Hell, he'd spent a not inconsiderable portion of his younger days in places just like this and never thought anything of it. The women in those clubs had just been objects to him at the time. His gaze wandered around the room, looking at all of the men. They would be the same, except for those who imagined they had some kind of relationship with the women, just because they'd seen them naked. Those were the more dangerous types to Oliver's way of thinking. He took in the faces of all the men nearby and tried to work out which were which.

"Your drink, sir." The red-head was back, a cold beer on her tray. She offered it to Oliver. "My name is Heidi, what's yours?"

He took the beer and paid, tipping generously. "Oliver."

Heidi's eyes widened at the tip. "Very nice to meet you, Oliver," she purred. "Is it your first time at the Angel? I haven't seen you here before."

"First time," he confirmed.

"Well, now, if you need anything, you just come and find me, sweetheart," she said huskily.

"I'm looking for a girl."

Heidi giggled. "You've come to the right place, Oliver."

Oliver gave her a strained smile. "A particular girl."

She fluttered long, false eyelashes at him. "I'm a particular girl."

"Her name is Felicity." Oliver swallowed hard, hoping against hope his next question would be met with a negative response. "Does she work here?"

Heidi's gaze moved to over his shoulder. "You tell me, honey."

With a cold knot of dread in the pit of his stomach, Oliver turned back around and looked up at the stage just as the brunette walked off and another woman took her place. Oliver's mouth went dry as Felicity walked onto the stage, blonde hair loose and flowing around her shoulders, minus her usual glasses. She was wearing a short wrap around skirt with a matching wrap around top. Both were white and with diamantes decorating them. The ensemble was completed with knee high lace up white boots that made her legs look impossibly long. _Oh God, this was really happening. _She gave a sultry smile at the audience, sauntering up to the pole and putting a hand on it, doing a slow turn. Oliver could feel the interest of the men being piqued as the tempo of the music slowed down. Felicity had all of their rapt attention now as she commanded the stage. Her hands went to her top, slowly undoing it. Oliver willed himself to look away but her slow movements had him mesmerized. Felicity undid her top and slipped it from her shoulders, revealing a sexy white bra underneath. A few wolf whistles rang out, another man encouraged her to keep on going but Felicity just smiled and started to move to the music.

Her lithe body moved in perfect rhythm with the music, a languid dance of enticement. Oliver's hand tightened on his beer, unable to take his eyes off of Felicity. She really was beautiful and Oliver felt himself begin to sweat. _This was so wrong. What was he doing here?_ He should get up and leave before Felicity saw him. Oliver knew that was the right thing to do but nonetheless he stayed exactly where he was, caught in a kind of hell of his own making. Maybe Felicity had been right all along and he liked to punish himself. Felicity walked along the edge of the stage, smiling down at the men who were looking up at her with obvious desire. She crouched down and gave them a brief, tantalizing glimpse of her panties in the process. Oliver went pale, his hands suddenly clammy. _He needed to get the hell out of here. He couldn't watch this, not if he wanted to keep his sanity._ One of the men tucked a ten dollar bill into Felicity's waistband, his hand lingering longer than was necessary. Oliver tensed but Felicity was already standing up, starting to move away from him.

The man reached out and grabbed her ankle. "Where you going, Blondie?" he demanded to know. "You got your money, now show me your tits, whore."

A thin film of red covered Oliver's vision as he literally saw red at someone talking to Felicity like that. Without even thinking about it, Oliver lunged across the stage and grabbed the man's arm, jerking it off Felicity. "Don't touch her!" he yelled at the startled man.

"Oliver!" gasped Felicity in shock, staring down at him wide-eyed.

"Hey, I paid my money, buddy," the man said, pulling his arm out from Oliver's grasp. "Now I want my tits and ass from the little slut."

Oliver hauled back and punched the man as hard as he could in the face. The man dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"Oliver, no!" said Felicity in distress as he went in to land a few more satisfying punches on the drunken idiot. She grabbed at his arm and tried to pull him away. "Stop it! You can't do this!"

Oliver's head snapped around and he looked up at Felicity's stricken face.

"Leave him alone," Felicity implored him, dragging on his arm. "You have to get out of here, security is coming. I don't want a scene."

Oliver really wanted to finish pounding the other man to a bloody pulp but Felicity seemed intent on dragging him away which suited Oliver just fine because that meant the show was over and he wanted that more than anything. Felicity kept a tight hold of his arm as she pulled him away, through the crowd and out into the back area of the club. They ended up in a small room which looked like a store room of some kind.

Once inside, Felicity let go of his arm and made a distressed sound. "Oliver, what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" repeated Oliver in disbelief. "What are _you_ doing here?" All thoughts of Felicity being an adult and free to make her own choices had disappeared completely from his head. Oliver was outraged at what he'd just witnessed. _How many men a night spoke to Felicity like that? How many of them laid their grubby hands on her?_ Oliver was so mad he could hardly see straight.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" asked Felicity in frustration.

"Making a huge mistake," bit out Oliver.

Felicity looked taken aback and then annoyed. "Excuse me?"

Oliver tried to rein in his anger and frustration but it wasn't easy. "Felicity, you shouldn't be here."

"No, Oliver, you're the one who shouldn't be here," she said firmly.

"You should be grateful I was," he snapped. "That jackass had his hands all over you. How do you think that would have ended?"

"With security throwing him out," said Felicity sharply. "Everything was under control, Oliver. I didn't need you to rescue me."

Oliver scowled at her. "That wasn't what I was doing." This wasn't how he'd expected Felicity to be when she found out he knew about this job. Oliver thought she'd be more embarrassed or apologetic but instead Felicity just looked annoyed.

"Then what were you doing?" she challenged him. "Why are you here, Oliver?"

Oliver scowled at her. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Felicity arched an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Because this is a strip club," said Oliver tersely.

"I know what it is."

"Then why are you here?" the frustrated words were out of his mouth before Oliver could stop them.

Felicity gave a little shrug. "Maybe I like working here."

"You like taking your clothes off for strangers?" he ground out.

"Why is that so impossible to believe?" Felicity challenged him.

"Because that's not who you are," said Oliver hotly.

"And yet, here I am," said Felicity calmly. She looked him over. "And here you are too and I have to wonder why?"

"I told you," said Oliver uncomfortably. "I had to find out for myself that you were alright."

"Why didn't you just ask me if I was alright? You didn't have to come here."

Oliver opened his mouth to answer her and then realized he didn't know what to say, so he closed it again.

"You want to know what I think?" Felicity started to walk towards him, continuing on before Oliver had a chance to reply. "I think you wanted to come here and see me dancing for all of those men."

"Trust me," said Oliver unevenly, "I really didn't." Felicity was advancing on him and Oliver took a step back, his back bumped up against the wall behind him as she continued to close in on him. Felicity kept moving closer and Oliver was acutely aware of just how little she was wearing. He locked eyes with her, determined not to look anywhere else but what he saw in Felicity's eyes was even more unnerving than her current state of undress.

"You wanted to see for yourself that I was capable of working in a place like this," she challenged him.

_How could someone so much smaller than him suddenly seem to loom so large? _Oliver felt trapped as Felicity closed in on him, standing directly in front of him, their bodies almost touching. "No," he rasped, "I wanted the opposite."

A small, knowing smile touched Felicity's lips as she looked up at him intently. "I think that's a lie. I think you wanted to know I was capable of something like this, that I wasn't as pure and innocent as you've built me up in your head to be."

"Why would I want that?" asked Oliver, feeling himself beginning to sweat again. _Why was he letting this happen? Why didn't he just walk away? _

"Because if I'm not so innocent, then I'm no longer forbidden fruit." Felicity leaned into him and Oliver swallowed hard at the feeling of her softness fitting itself against his hard angles. "And that means you can give yourself permission to have me," she finished off huskily.

Oliver's eyes widened in shock. "No," he said weakly, "that isn't what I want." His protests sounded frail even to his own ears. _What was happening here? Why was Felicity being like this?_

Felicity went up on tip toes, her lips against against his ear, hot breath on his face. "You want to believe you're so noble, denying yourself yourself sweet, innocent Felicity but if you could prove to yourself that she wasn't so untouched then all bets would be off."

Oliver put his hands on her waist, intending to push Felicity away from him and give them some much needed distance between them. Unfortunately, at the first touch of her skin beneath his sweating palms, Oliver forgot what he was meant to be doing. They tightened unconsciously on her waist. "No," he said hoarsely.

Felicity moved her lips from his ear and leant into him more. Oliver's eyes half-closed at the feeling of being trapped by her soft warmth. His head was spinning and Oliver could feel himself beginning to lose control.

Felicity was so close now, her lips were brushing his as she spoke. "I thought you didn't want there to be anymore lies between us," she whispered. Her hand drifted to the waistband of his pants and she took hold of it.

Oliver's stomach muscles clenched violently as Felicity's knuckles grazed the delicate skin of his midriff. "Felicity, don't," he begged her unevenly.

She looked up at him with warm, enticing eyes. "Don't what, Oliver?" she asked huskily.

Oliver couldn't look away, couldn't move. She had him completely and utterly mesmerized. Oliver was unable to stop himself. The blood was thumping through his body, making his ears ring and head spin. "Don't stop," he implored her raggedly.

Felicity gave a self-satisfied smile. "You're the boss," she said throatily, closing the tiny distance between them and pressing her lips confidently against his.

A lightning bolt shot through Oliver's body at his first taste of Felicity, setting him on fire and instantly making him want more. His hands tightened on her waist, dragging her as close as physically possible to him but it wasn't enough. Oliver wanted more, needed more…

"Argghhh!" Oliver sat bolt right up in bed, covered in sweat as he suddenly awoke from his vivid dream. He swatted at the air, kicking out in a panic and causing his legs to get tangled in the sheets. In the process, Oliver accidentally propelled himself out of bed with his frenzied attempts to fight his way back to reality. He face planted painfully on the polished marble floor of his bedroom and he let out a grunt of pain. "Son of a bitch!" he snarled. Oliver was still caught up in the sheets as he put a hand to his forehead which had taken the brunt of the fall. He rolled onto his back, breathing heavily and stared up at his darkened ceiling. _What the hell was with that dream?_ Oliver swallowed hard, still unable to believe how real it had seemed. So real in fact his whole body was throbbing in a kind of delicious frustration. _This couldn't be happening. He couldn't be having sex dreams about Felicity. This was completely unacceptable_. It was one thing for this Felicity situation to consume his thoughts during the day and another entirely for her to take over his dreams as well. Oliver let out a loud groan. He needed to fix this and fast. Oliver put a shaky hand over his face. He just prayed to God the plan he put in place was going to work because if this went on, he was going to lose his mind and what was left of his dignity.

Both felt like they were hanging by a thread…

**A/N****: Yes, I went there – the old, 'it's was all a dream' classic trope. Hangs head in shame. I tried to resist, I really did but much like Oliver, I was just too weak. ;) Next chapter we find out what Oliver's cunning plan is. Will it work or will it all go pear-shaped? Poor old Ollie is not having a good time of it lately, so maybe he's due a change of luck… or not. 0:) **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N****: Hola, my little passion flowers – how are we all today? Alright, enough about you, back to me. **

**Sorry this update has been a little longer in coming – I worked all weekend, so my time was not my own unfortunately. But, it's a Sunday afternoon here and I'm gearing up for a serious Nanna nap and before I sink into blissful unconsciousness, I thought I'd finish off this chapter and post it. Yes, my awesomeness knows no bounds, I know… she said, modestly. Lol**

**So, while I go for a snooze, why don't you read on MacDuff? **

**See, I can vandalize Shakespeare with the best of them. Only one fly in the literary ointment with that one though because the actual quote is "L****ay on, Macduff, and damned be him who first cries 'Hold! enough!'" But I can't make any kind of pun pertaining to reading with the word lay, now can I? Lead on MacDuff is much better, if wildly inaccurate. In my opinion, Shakespeare brings these kinds of misquotes on himself for this very reason. Yes, I just threw shade at one of the greatest contributors to literature that has ever lived. Nothing bad can come of that… right? . **

**Well, why don't you just continue on with this chapter and ignore the almost deafening sound of old Willy spinning in his grave like a cat in a dryer, eh? Goodo…**

**CHAPTER FIVE**

Oliver stood in the elevator, staring directly ahead and trying to not be so aware of the young woman standing next to him. He and Felicity had arrived at work at the same time this morning and it would have been odd for them not to travel up in the same elevator but the last thing Oliver wanted was to be was in a confined space with the phantom from his dreams. It was like he'd violated some kind of trust between them with that crazy dream. Oliver felt like he'd taken advantage of Felicity somehow. It didn't make sense but then, nothing about this made sense. Dreams faded, he just had to wait until this one wasn't so relentlessly emblazoned in his consciousness and then everything would go back to normal. All he had to do until that happened was keep some measure of distance between himself and Felicity. Not exactly easy with the fact they spent huge portions of the day and night together but Oliver just needed a little space and time to get some perspective on all things Felicity. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Felicity take a sip from her plastic cup and then she made a spluttering, gagging noise and grabbed at his arm to steady herself as her whole body went into spasms.

"Oh my God, how can that taste keep on surprising me?" she wailed, coughing violently and clinging to his arm even more tightly.

_So much for keeping his distance._ Oliver took her arm to steady her. "If you hate the green tea so much, stop drinking it," he said in exasperation.

Felicity blinked, her eyes full of tears from all of her coughing. "But it's good for me," she choked out.

"How is it good for you if you cough up a lung every time you take a mouthful?" he said in irritation. "Stop drinking the damn tea."

Felicity glared up at him. "You're not the boss of me." She wrinkled her nose. "Okay, you're the boss of me but I'm pretty sure my contract didn't have a beverage section."

All this talk of being the boss only made Oliver thank about that dream.

"_You're the boss." _

The memory of Felicity's husky assertion just before she kissed him had Oliver sweating again. _Damn it, why wasn't this dream fading already?_ He abruptly let go of Felicity and stepped away just as the elevator gave a violent lurch. Felicity stumbled towards him but caught herself in time. Unfortunately, in the process she managed to throw her cup of green tea onto him. The hot liquid hit Oliver's midriff and immediately soaked through his shirt. He gave a little hiss at the assault of the burning liquid running down his stomach.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Felicity in distress. "Oliver, I'm so sorry. Here—" She fumbled in her bag and drew out a wad of tissues, immediately trying to correct her mistake. Felicity hastily wiped at his stomach with the tissues. "I can't believe I did that."

Oliver looked down at the top of Felicity's blonde head as she was bent over his waist, madly scrubbing away and trying to clean up the spilt tea. He bit back a groan. _Okay, this had to stop._ "Felicity, I'm fine, just leave it."

"Did you get burned?" she fretted, pulling up his shirt to check.

Oliver's stomach muscles tensed rock hard at the first touch of her hand to his midriff. He grabbed at her hand, heart beating wildly. "Don't!" he said sharply.

Felicity looked at him in surprise. "Don't what?"

_Don't stop. _

It was on the tip of his tongue, just like in the dream. Maybe he was still dreaming? And if he was, then there wouldn't be any consequences if he told Felicity not to stop what she was doing… ever. His hand tightened on her wrist as he did battle with his conscience. Oliver blinked and swallowed hard, knowing this wasn't a dream which meant there would be a real consequences to that kind of loss of control. Unacceptable consequences. Fall out which could result in him losing Felicity from his life forever. "Don't… worry about it," said Oliver hoarsely, abruptly stepping away from her.

Felicity made an unhappy face. "I'm such a klutz."

"It wasn't your fault." Oliver turned away from her, facing the panel of buttons and needing not to be looking at Felicity right then. He started to jab an impatient finger at every button on the panel. Oliver desperately needed to get out of here.

"Stop that," said Felicity from behind him. "That's not helping anything." She walked up beside him and batted his hand away. "I said stop it, you're going to break the thing more."

"We're already not moving," snapped Oliver with more force then he'd intended. "I can't see it getting worse."

"We could be plummeting to our deaths because you pushed too many buttons," she threw back at him.

"That isn't how elevators work," said Oliver shortly.

"You don't know that."

"We have to get out of here!" Oliver practically shouted at her, feeling like the walls were closing in on him and Felicity.

Felicity held up a hand to him. "Okay, calm down, Shouty McYellerson, there is no need to have an aneurysm." She looked him over. "What's up with you? Since when are you claustrophobic?"

_Since I dreamt about you being nearly naked and seducing me and now we're stuck in a tiny box together with no way out. _"I'm not claustrophobic, I just want to get out of here because I've got a lot of things to do today." Oliver looked up at the paneling in the ceiling. "I can climb out."

"You're not going to climb out," said Felicity in exasperation. "I'm going to call the service tech and have him fix this." She walked over to a small panel in the wall and slid it back, revealing a phone. Felicity picked it up. "Oh hi, Carl, this is Felicity here. I'm stuck in the elevator on the north side with Mr. Queen. Can you see what the problem is, please? Thanks." She hung up the phone and arched an eyebrow at him. "See, no need for Mr. Throbby to come out to play."

Oliver sent a panicked look down to his crotch at that last comment. "Wh-what?" The blood was still humming in his veins from Felicity's touch but please God, don't let him have given anything away to her. _Damn but why did he always have to wear such tight pants? _He looked up at Felicity to see her tapping the side of her head.

"That vein in your temple, the one that always pulses when you're annoyed or upset," she explained. "I call him Mr. Throbby."

Oliver quickly put a self-conscious and to his head. "I don't have a vein," he protested even as he was flooded with relief that it wasn't a more embarrassing reference.

"You so totally do," said Felicity casually. "It's how I gauge how upset you are when you're being all stalwart and stoic on me."

"You name parts of my body?" asked Oliver in disbelief.

"Only one part," said Felicity defensively. "That's not weird."

Oliver dropped his hand away from his head, a little unnerved that Felicity noticed things about him he didn't himself know. The elevator gave another lurch and they were on their way again.

Felicity grinned. "See, no problem."

_If only that were true. _Suddenly his life seemed like nothing but one big problem, which wasn't anything new, except this time Felicity was at the center of that problem, which was entirely new. _This wasn't good._

She frowned at him. "Why are you glaring at me? I said I was sorry about the tea."

Oliver forced all expression from his face. "I'm not glaring at you."

The doors slid open at their floor. "Yes, you were." Felicity smiled at the man standing on the other side of the elevator doors. "Hi, Diggle."

"Hey, Felicity," said the older man easily. "You two are late."

"It wasn't our fault," said Oliver tersely as he strode from the elevator. "The stupid elevator broke down."

Diggle raised an eyebrow at the amount of annoyance in Oliver's voice. Felicity rolled her eyes at him. "Don't worry about him. I spilled green tea on his crotch and now he's in a mood, even though it was an accident."

"I'm not in a mood," bit out Oliver.

Diggle didn't look convinced. "By the looks of it, Mr. Throbby begs to differ."

Oliver stared at him. "You know about Mr. Throb–I mean my vein?"

"One of the few natural wonders which can be seen from space?" asked Diggle laconically. "Sure, I know about the big T."

Oliver couldn't believe what he was hearing. "So, what do you two do all day, sit around talking about parts of my anatomy?"

"Not all day, we also like to fit in a bit about Game of Thrones," deadpanned Diggle. "That show is kickass."

Oliver scowled at him. He knew Diggle was only joking but Oliver was beginning to think he didn't know anything about anything when it came to the lives of those around him. It was definitely unsettling.

Felicity was hurrying over to her desk. "Oliver, before you do anything today, I need you to sign this paperwork." She rooted through several folders on her desk, engrossed in looking for the correct pieces of paper.

"Then we'd better get going," said Diggle. "You've got that follow up breakfast meeting with the Swedes in half an hour."

Oliver actually welcomed having something to do and he was pretty happy to be out of the office as well. Felicity was bent over her desk, shapely bottom pointed towards him and Oliver knew he really needed to keep his distance from her while he was in this kind of confusing turmoil. Distance was going to be his friend today. No getting close to Felicity for any reason for the next little while Oliver promised himself.

"Here's the first lot of paperwork," said Felicity distractedly, reaching behind herself with a folder while continuing to look through the stacks on her desk. She let go of it, expecting Oliver to be right behind her and the papers dropped onto the ground. Felicity straightened up and turned around, looking down at them and then frowning at him. "What are you doing, Oliver? Do I have to suddenly throw these things at you?" She shook her head at him. "I don't have cooties, you know."

Oliver grimaced and stepped forward to retrieve the papers, just as Felicity did the same. They bent down together, causing their heads to collide with a sickening thud. Oliver reeled back even as he instinctively put out a concerned hand to grab Felicity's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said quickly.

She was tottering backwards, clutching her forehead. "Ow ow oww! What is your head made of, concrete?"

Diggle made a face and shook his head. "Even I felt that and I'm standing on the other side of the room."

Oliver knew what Diggle meant. Felicity's head had managed to hit the part of his forehead which he'd cracked on the floor that morning. That had seriously hurt but he was more worried about Felicity right then. "Felicity, are you alright?"

Felicity straightened up, looking a little dazed as she dabbed at her forehead gingerly. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said shakily.

Diggle shook his head at them. "Okay, you two, enough with the three Stooges routine. Oliver, we have to go."

"Sign the papers," said Felicity quickly and then eyed him warily. "I'm going to pick them up now. You stay where you are."

Oliver grimaced as Felicity crouched down and retrieved the papers and then handed them to him.

"Sign," she instructed him, "and I'll get the others."

Oliver dutifully did as he was instructed and then Diggle was ushering him out to that meeting. Oliver was aware of the other man's eyes on him as they headed to the underground garage. He flicked Diggle a warning look. "What?"

"You're not a clumsy guy, Oliver."

"Your point being?" said Oliver tersely.

"Nothing, I guess, just establishing a base line to review this new behavior by," said Diggle casually.

"What new behavior?" ground out Oliver. "There is no new behavior."

"The fall the other night, not being able to get out of the way from cups of tea, your attempt to render Felicity unconscious—"

"That was an accident," snapped Oliver.

"My point exactly." Diggle arched an eyebrow at him as they continued walking. "I just want to know if, in your current distracted state, I should be worried about you accidentally hauling off and shooting me at some point."

Oliver's lips thinned. "Keep up this conversation and I can practically guarantee it."

"Using veiled threats to distract from the issue at hand," mused Diggle. "Interesting."

"They're not veiled threats," said Oliver darkly. "And I don't have any issues."

Diggle's look was of open disbelief.

"I don't have any more issues than I've always had," qualified Oliver quickly. "Everything is fine. I've got this."

"Mm hmm," said Diggle, clearly unconvinced.

#

Felicity sat back in her chair and sighed heavily. She pushed up her glasses and rubbed her eyes, stifling a yawn. With Oliver away for the next little while, would it be wrong of her to catch a little shut eye? Burning the candle at both ends really did take it out of a girl. Felicity looked at her in tray and saw a crisp white envelope. She reached for it and opened up the envelope, knowing it contained her monthly paycheck. Felicity glanced idly at the figure printed on the check and then sat up straighter, doing a double take. She made a noise of exasperation. _Okay, that wasn't right._ Felicity gave a cluck of annoyance. Instead of a much needed nap, she was going to have to go and sort this out with the Pay Office. Ten minutes later Felicity was walking into the Pay Roll Supervisor's office. She smiled at the woman in her early thirties. "Hi Gail, there's a mix up with my pay." Felicity handed her check to the other woman. "Can you fix it for me, please?"

Gail gave the slip of paper the most cursory of glances. "The amount is right."

"No," said Felicity firmly, "it's not. That's a paycheck for a one of the executives or something. It's not for me."

"There hasn't been a mistake," said Gail coolly.

Felicity's brows drew together. "Of course there has. My salary is one fifth of this, at least."

Gail gave her a cold smile. "Not anymore. You've been given a pay increase."

"No, I haven't," said Felicity in disbelief. "There has been some kind of mix up."

"Mr. Queen called yesterday to authorize it himself."

Felicity blinked. "Oliv—, I mean, Mr. Queen did this?"

Even though the smile remained on Gail's lips, the other woman's eyes were coolly glib. "It seems Mr. Queen is very happy with the services you're providing, Ms. Smoak," she said sweetly. "And may I say, he must be _very_ satisfied for that kind of money."

Felicity knew exactly the kind of services the other woman was implying she was offering and she felt her cheeks heat.

Gail looked her over dismissively. "You'll have to tell me your secret." She cocked her head. "Or can I guess?"

Felicity took a deep, uneven breath and held Gail's gaze unflinchingly. "There has been a mistake and I'd very much appreciate it if you'd put my pay back to what it was."

"I can't do that, not without Mr. Queen's authorization." The woman stared back defiantly at Felicity. "And besides, I'm sure you more than earned every penny. Mr. Queen's… reputation… precedes him when it comes to—" Gail sneered, "making sure he gets his pound of flesh." Her smiled became even more sickly sweet. "I mean in the business world, of course."

Felicity couldn't help but be deeply offended on Oliver's behalf. Everyone knew of his wild boy past but the man put his life on the line every day for people who'd never know. He'd earned their respect but of course, she could never tell Gail that. Instead, she had to take the other woman's snide innuendos and not make a scene. "You'll get your authorization, Gail," said Felicity flatly. "And I'd appreciate it that when you, this gets fixed promptly." She turned on her heel and walked from Gail's office, conscious of the rest of the workers in the office all watching her as she left, all with varying degrees of knowing smirks on their faces. Felicity kept her head held high as she walked from the office, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of letting them think that their opinion mattered to her one little bit. It was only when she was back in the elevator, away from prying eyes that she let her shoulders slump, burying her face in her hands.

#

Oliver walked up to Felicity's desk, Diggle a few steps behind. His head felt clearer now that he'd had some space and he was grateful. This wasn't an awkward situation unless he chose to make it into one. Felicity didn't know about his dream and she never would which meant he was making a mountain out of a molehill. Nothing bad had happened between them and he just needed to stop tying himself up in knots over what was just a meaningless aberration on his behalf. Oliver's new perspective had put him a better frame of mind as he approached Felicity, who was standing in front of her desk, her back to him. "Felicity, were there any messages while I was gone?" Felicity turned around and Oliver was taken aback by the anger he could see in her blue eyes.

"Just the one," she said sweetly and then promptly reached behind her and grabbed the jug of water on her desk, throwing it in Oliver's face.

Diggle deftly stepped to one side, making sure he missed getting wet from the unexpected assault.

Oliver blinked water out of his eyes, too shocked to speak initially but finally he managed to splutter out some words. "What was that for?"

"What I really wanted to do was slap you, but that would have been unprofessional," bit out Felicity. "Plus, I recently discovered your head is made of some kind of rock-like substance and I don't want to break my hand."

Oliver shook his head to dislodge water droplets from his hair. "Felicity, is there any particular reason you feel the need to douse me in liquids every time you see me today?" ground out Oliver.

"Oh, I've got a reason." Felicity picked up a white slip of paper from her desk and waved it in his face. "You want to tell me what this is?"

Oliver hesitated, knowing exactly what it was but not quite understanding why Felicity was so upset about it.

"How did you think I'd feel when I got this, Oliver?" she asked angrily.

Oliver made a little face. "Happy?" he ventured uncertainly.

Diggle reached out and took the slip from Felicity's hand, seeing for himself what all the fuss was about. His eyes went wide when he saw the amount the check was made out to. "Whoa!"

"Whoa indeed," said Felicity sharply and then she grabbed a container of pens from her desk and threw them at Oliver's face. "Do I look happy?" asked a furious Felicity.

Oliver took the pens full in the face, grimacing against the painless attack as the conversation continued to get away from him. He needed to reign this in.

Diggle leaned over towards him. "Just a heads up, man, that question was rhetorical and no good can come of giving an answer. Also, try not to make any sudden movements. The next closest thing on her desk is an electric stapler and she could take an eye out with that."

Oliver shot him an annoyed look but he had bigger, angrier fish to fry right then. "Felicity, I don't see what the big deal is."

"You don't see what the big deal about suddenly increasing my salary to more than some heads of states get for running a country?" asked Felicity in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"I thought you were due a pay rise," protested Oliver. "You do a lot of extra things for me and—"

"And now, thanks to this check, everyone thinks they know what those extra things are," snapped Felicity. "How do you think that makes me feel?" She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "I'm really good at my job and I'm smart and loyal and a whole lot more besides but now everything thinks I got this job because you and I are having sex!" Felicity waved her hand around. "It was bad enough when you promoted me to be your assistant, a no one in the IT department but at least then it was only the occasional whisper or snide comment about how I got the job. Now everyone is convinced I'm some kind of carnival show ride which you're paying top dollar to ride whenever you want!" She was breathing hard from her outburst. "So, I'm going to ask you again, Oliver, how do you think that makes me feel?"

"Upset?" offered up Oliver hesitantly.

"Yes, I'm upset!" yelled Felicity. "How could you do that to me?"

"I thought I was doing something good, something you'd appreciate," spluttered Oliver. And more money meant she wouldn't have to keep a second job, which had been his overwhelming drive for the pay rise. However, on reflection and looking at an outraged, bristling Felicity, Oliver had to acknowledge there was an outside chance that he'd been so obsessed with achieving that goal, he might have been blinded to any downsides to his plan.

"Announcing to the entire office building that I'm your bought and paid for whore is something you thought I'd appreciate?" she shouted.

Oliver winced at her take on things. "Felicity, you have to know I didn't think that was what I was doing."

"You know what I think? I think I've got another thing to add to my con's list – thoughtless jerk!"

"Technically that's two things," pointed out Diggle.

Oliver looked over at him incredulously. "Seriously?"

Diggle shrugged. "Well, it is."

"You're right, Diggle, it is two things," huffed Felicity. "You get another point in your pros – good observational skills."

"Hey!" protested Oliver, put out that he was getting another two cons for his list while Diggle managed to wangle another pro for his at Oliver's expense. "He can't get another pro for being a dick. That's not fair."

"You know what's not fair, Oliver?" asked Felicity sharply. "It's being branded as some kind of scarlet woman when you haven't done anything wrong."

Oliver ran a helpless hand through his still wet hair. "Felicity, I'm sorry. What can I do to make this right?"

"Ring Gail in the Pay Office and put me back on my normal wage," said Felicity flatly. "Tell her you had some kind of brain aneurysm or you were doing coke at the time or the voices in your head made you do it – I don't care. Just put things back to how they were. And as for my reputation—" She blew out an aggravated breath. "Well, I guess easy come, easy go, huh?"

"Felicity—" said Oliver in distress. This was not what he'd wanted at all. The pay increase was meant to help Felicity out, not make her life harder.

"I'm going to run some errands," said Felicity tersely. "And while I'm gone, you better fix this and I mean right now." She grabbed her bag and coat and stalked out of the office.

Oliver was left standing there, still dripping as Diggle looked him over, shaking his head.

"What did you do?" tutted Diggle.

"Don't start with me," ground out Oliver, stomping his way to his office.

Diggle followed him, briefly disappearing into the bathroom and reappearing with a towel, which he handed to Oliver. "I mean, seriously, what were you thinking?"

Oliver took the towel and started to dry his hair and face. "I thought I was giving an employee a pay rise and they'd be pleased," he growled from underneath the towel.

"It didn't occur to you how it might look to other people at all?"

Oliver pulled the towel off his head and scowled at Diggle. "Obviously not," he snapped.

"You've really upset, Felicity."

"Yeah, I got that with the water in the face thing," said Oliver bitterly.

Diggle pressed his lips together and gave Oliver a pointed look. "I don't like seeing Felicity upset."

Oliver's expression darkened. "And you think I do? I was trying to help her out, not upset her."

Diggle arched an eyebrow. "What makes you think Felicity needs money?"

Oliver motioned restlessly with his hand, not wanting to give away Felicity's secret job. "I don't know, it was just a gut feeling."

"May I make a suggestion that you no longer take advice from your lower intestines?" said Diggle wryly. "They don't seem to know what the hell they're talking about."

"No kidding," grumbled Oliver as he sat back on the edge of his desk, towel around his neck. The whole pay rise thing hadn't gone anywhere near how he'd expected but then that seemed par for the course now with Felicity. She just kept on surprising him.

Diggle looked down at the check in his hand. "Just for future reference, what does a guy have to do to get this kind of pay rise?" He held up a stalling finger to Oliver. "And before you answer, let me preface that question by letting you know that even though you wouldn't know it to look at me, I like to cuddle." Diggle's lips twitched. "Just in case that influences your decision any."

Oliver glared at him for his teasing. "Why would I give you a pay rise? What kind of bodyguard steps back out of the way when his employer is being attacked? You couldn't get out of the way fast enough when Felicity threw that pitcher of water on me. Aren't you meant to dive in front of me to protect me or have I misunderstood the whole bodyguard mission statement?" Oliver knew he was taking his frustration with himself out on an innocent bystander but it felt good to vent.

Diggle gave an unconcerned shrug. "I have a sliding scale with the whole bodyguard shtick for you, Oliver. When it comes to you and water, anything less than a bathtub worth and you're on your own." He gave an unapologetic smile. "I find its best to pace myself with the whole body on the line thing considering the kind of lifestyle you lead."

"Good to know," said Oliver flatly.

Diggle just smiled. "Look, don't worry about Felicity. She'll calm down and all of this will blow over. Felicity's not the kind of girl to hold a grudge."

Oliver grimaced. "I was just trying to help her, Diggle," he said unhappily.

"Want my advice?"

"Not really."

"Tough, you're getting it anyway – stop."

"Stop what?" asked Oliver evasively.

"Stop whatever it is that is driving you crazy when it comes to Felicity." Diggle's expression became full of warning. "Cause I'm tellin' you now, you mess with that girl and you and I are going to have an issue."

Oliver scowled at him. "I'm not trying to mess with Felicity. I wouldn't do that."

"Good, because she's not one of your easy come, easy go fun time girls," said Diggle protectively.

"You think I don't know that?" asked Oliver in frustration. None of this would be happening if Felicity wasn't who Felicity was.

Diggle folded his arms in front of his broad chest. "I'm just making sure we're on the same page here because I'd hate to have to kick your ass if you did anything to hurt her."

Oliver gave him a challenging look. "You think you could kick my ass?"

Diggle inclined his head. "I think I could do a lot of things if I had to when it comes to Felicity."

Oliver's shoulders slumped a little, just realizing he had the exact same issue with Felicity and it was turning into a real problem for him. "Yeah," he muttered darkly, "I know the feeling."

"Just don't do anything else stupid," Diggle advised him.

Oliver really wished he could make Diggle that promise but he had this sinking feeling that common sense wasn't going to prevail in this situation anytime soon.

It was a depressing thought.

**A/N****: So, there we go, that was Oliver's brilliant plan to stop Felicity's late night activities… so much for plan A, hmm? The next chapter will have him moving onto plan B. Will it be more successful I hear you ask? Settle petals – like I'd know. I haven't written the chapter yet. Anything could happen between now and then with my muse who has recently been released from an institute which has declared her no longer a danger to herself or those around her. I have my doubts though – what kind of a muse paints a fence at night? And it's not even our fence. It's just weirdly unwholesome. **

**Anyways, I've just realized she doesn't have to get me much further. We're almost done with this story, maybe one or two chapters left – can you believe it? Ah, short but sweet, just like a life-sized jelly baby buried up to his neck in sand. Weird image… I wonder what kind of crime a life-sized jelly baby would have to commit to get that kind of punishment… and wouldn't he be tried as a juvenile considering he's a baby and all. Hmm… so many mysteries to the universe, so little time. Well, for answers to this question and probably a whole lot less, why don't you join me in the next chapter and we'll finally find out just what Felicity has been up to for realsy. ;) **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N****: Finally got this chapter done. Man, I haven't had a day off since I've started posting this fic and I'm starting to flag somewhat, hence the longer times between update. Sorry 'bout that, guys. Only one more day of a 14 day straight stint of working and then I get to collapse in a heap. **

**Nothing incredible to say before letting you read this chapter, so just make up something for yourselves, eh? **

**See you at the end…. :D **

**CHAPTER SIX**

Oliver walked back down the corridor from his latest meeting that day without any real enthusiasm. Felicity was still mad at him, refusing even to make eye contact after the pay rise debacle earlier that day. Diggle seemed to be finding all of this mildly amusing and Oliver felt like he couldn't take much more. He had a lot more at stake in his life than what Felicity chose to do with her free time. So why was it consuming his every conscious and unconscious moment? There were bad guys to be taken down, the usual family dramas and seemingly endless fall out from his time on the island which should be front and center in his mind but instead his world had been reduced to the secret Felicity was withholding from him. It was all Oliver could think about and that was a dangerous thing in his life. Oliver's footsteps slowed as he heard the sound of Felicity's laughter coming from around the corner. He was glad to hear the light-hearted sound. Maybe Diggle was right and Felicity had gotten over the misunderstanding about her pay already? Oliver certainly hoped so. Felicity being mad at him wasn't something he particularly enjoyed.

"Of course I'll clear my schedule for tonight."

Oliver froze and then peeked around the corner to find Felicity on her cell phone, sitting at her desk. Only, it wasn't her usual cell phone. This one was yellow and she was smiling as she talked to the person on the other end.

"You're my favorite customer, I'll just rearrange the others," continued on Felicity blithely. The person on the other end must have said something in reply because Felicity laughed again. "I bet you say that to all the girls," she said teasingly. "How does ten o'clock tonight sound? Does that work for you?" Felicity nodded. "Great, I'll see you then." She hung up the phone and put the yellow cell phone back in her bag as Oliver ducked back behind the corner so she couldn't see him.

_Favorite customer? What did that mean?_ Oliver swallowed hard, not even wanting to think about it. _What could Felicity be selling that men were ringing her on a special phone and setting up meetings in the middle of the night?_ Oliver closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the paneling of the wall. Then, as a wave of frustration came over him, he pulled his head back and slammed it against the wall. On that exact same spot on his forehead which he'd banged twice already today. The thing was though, the physical pain felt like a relief from the mental anguish Oliver was putting himself through. His jaw hardened. This was getting ridiculous. Enough was enough and Oliver was done tying himself up in knots over this. One way or the other, he was going to get this sorted and over and done with.

**#**

Oliver determinedly strode into the Fallen Angel just before ten o'clock that night. It was pretty much as his dream had predicted. If you'd seen one strip club, you'd seen them all. Oliver scanned the crowd, looking for Felicity. He was done tip toeing around this issue and he was just going to face it head on. If Felicity was indeed working here, which seemed inevitable at this point, Oliver was simply going to make her stop. He didn't care if it was going to be kicking and screaming but Oliver wasn't leaving this place without Felicity. She was already mad at him, she may as well be mad at him over something which would finally allow Oliver some peace of mind. Felicity wasn't going to come back to this place after tonight. Oliver didn't care if he was going to have to lock her up somewhere, this was her last night at the Fallen Angel doing whatever the hell he couldn't bring himself to think about. In the back of his mind, there was a small voice protesting his high-handed tactics but Oliver gritted his teeth and ignored the tiny voice of reason. There was no good reason for Felicity to be working in a place like this and whatever she was telling herself, Oliver knew her reasoning was wrong. He wasn't crossing a line, he was drawing one and making sure Felicity was on the right side of that line. That made him a good and concerned friend, right? Or possibly a deranged, controlling mad man_._ It was a fine line… apparently.

Up ahead of him, Oliver caught sight of a blonde ponytail in amongst all of the people. His stomach clenched. _Felicity._ In between the crowd Oliver caught glimpses of the back of a glittery thong and matching bra and she had little angel wings attached to her back, like all the other girls working there. Oliver gritted his teeth, just wanting to get Felicity out of here as fast as he could. He pushed his way through the crowd, not taking his eyes off that blonde ponytail. Felicity was following a man who was making a bee-line for one of the little curtained partitions that were dotted along both walls of the club. Oliver knew what that meant. It was a place where men could pay for private dances from the girls. He quicken his pace, knowing there was no way he was going to let that happen. They were almost at the curtained cubital when Oliver caught up with Felicity. He grabbed her wrist to stall her. "Felicity!" he said as he swung her around to face him. The blonde woman looked up at him with surprised brown eyes. Oliver immediately let go of the stranger's wrist and took a step back. "I'm sorry," he said hastily. "I thought you were someone else."

The woman smiled up at him. "I can be anyone you want me to be, honey," she purred. "But you've got to wait your turn." She glanced over her shoulder at the man who was standing at the cubital, looking a little impatient. "My dance card is kinda full right now."

Oliver shook his head at her. "I'm not looking for a dance. I'm looking for a girl."

"Felicity?"

"Yes." Oliver hesitated, still hoping he'd gotten this all wrong. "Is-is she around?"

"Felicity doesn't work the floor," the woman informed him.

Oliver felt a little of the tension leave his body. "She doesn't?" That had to be a good thing.

The woman made a vague gesture towards a set of stairs across the room Oliver could see leading up to a second floor. "She works upstairs, select vistors only. Do you have an appointment with her?" She looked him over. "Because you don't look like her usual type."

_Felicity had a type… and he wasn't it?_ Oliver really didn't know how to feel about any of this. His head was spinning with more questions then he'd had walking into this place which he hadn't thought possible. "She's upstairs?" said Oliver. "Right now?"

"Yeah, came in about an hour ago but she's got someone with her now," the woman warned her. "You won't be able to go up."

"Oh, I'm going up," ground out Oliver, a muscle ticking in his jaw. This was officially worse than he'd originally thought it was. Dancing for men was one thing but entertaining them in a private, upstairs room was a whole new level of unacceptable. The idea of locking Felicity in a room somewhere and not letting her out until she saw reason was beginning to sound less crazy and more like the best thing for everyone involved. _What the hell was she thinking, getting involved in this kind of world?_ Oliver still had no answers but he had the solution. He stalked his way over to the staircase which the beginning of was partially hidden away behind a standalone wall. The entrance of the staircase actually had a swinging door in front of it and Oliver pushed his way through, only to have a man, all dressed in black, step out and put a hand on his chest.

"I'm sorry, sir," said the muscle-bound man with no neck who looked to be of Islander descent, "but this is a by invitation area only."

Oliver gave him a confident smile. "I'm invited. Felicity is expecting me."

The man looked skeptical as he looked Oliver over. "I don't think so."

Oliver hung onto his smile but his expression hardened a little. "Well, I do think so." He went to move past the other man.

The security guard put a hand and stalled Oliver again. "Felicity is already with a client and she didn't tell me she was expecting anyone else, so you're not going anywhere."

Oliver's eyes narrowed menacingly. "And what, you're going to stop me?" Sure, the guy was big but Oliver had fought bigger and if he needed to, he'd lay this guy out if he was stupid enough to actually try and stop him from getting to Felicity.

The man just smiled. "Nah, that's not my job."

"Good," said Oliver flatly and made a third attempt to brush past the other man but was once again stalled as the man held up a hand and called back over his shoulder.

"Hey, cuz, we got someone who doesn't understand plain English here."

Oliver looked past the security man's shoulder to see a large mass detach itself from the darkness and lumber its way over towards them. Oliver kept his face expressionless as a man, who looked to be related to the first security guard, stomp his way over to them. This man had to be well over seven feet tall and looked to be about the same across. He was the biggest human being Oliver had ever seen in his life.

The first security guard smiled at Oliver in amusement as he jerked his head towards the other man. "It's his job."

"There a problem, LB?" asked the giant.

LB looked Oliver over. "I think so, this one doesn't look too smart, BB."

BB swiveled his enormous head back to look at Oliver. "How about it, little man?" he asked easily. "You going to make the smart choice or the dumb one?"

Oliver drew himself up to his full height, which was basically inconsequential compared to this man mountain and squared his shoulders. His eyes narrowed menacingly. "I'm going upstairs and I'd recommend you get out of my way."

BB sighed heavily and shook his head. "Looks like you're right, cuz," he said, talking to the other security guard. "This one isn't going to be smart at all."

LB shrugged. "Have fun. Call me when you need me to collect the body." With that ominous offer hanging in the air, LB walked out the swinging doors, leaving them to it.

Oliver held up his hand to BB. "I don't want any trouble and I don't want to hurt anyone—"

BB's face split into a broad grin. "Well, I appreciate your concern," he chuckled, "but I don't think I'm the one who has to worry about getting hurt."

Oliver was using their exchange to try and work out some kind of plan of attack. The man had to have a weakness, everyone did. He just needed to find it and exploit it. Oliver sent him a cool look. "Haven't you ever heard that the bigger they are, the harder they fall?" Without any further warning Oliver snapped back his fist and punched BB as hard as he could in the stomach.

BB rocked back a little on his heels but recovered his balance easily and then arched an eyebrow down at Oliver. "Is that your best shot?" he asked casually.

Oliver grimaced at the lack of response from a punch which would have crippled just about any other man. "I sure hope not," he sighed, shaking his hand a little. Oliver looked BB over. His best shot here was going to that he was going to be more agile than the giant of a man. He had to use that to his advantage because brute strength obviously wasn't going to cut it after that display.

"We can stop now, while you have some dignity left," offered up BB helpfully.

Oliver pulled a face. "I've had a pretty loose grip on my dignity this last week," he confessed. "I may as well see this thing through."

"Tough week, huh?" asked a surprisingly sympathetic BB.

Oliver gave a short nod of his head. "You could say that."

"It's not going to get better if you try and get up those stairs," BB advised him.

Oliver looked up the stairs and thought of Felicity up there, alone with some guy and his resolve hardened. "It's really not an option for me at this point," he said tersely.

"Sure, we've all been there," said BB understandingly. He smiled down at Oliver. "I like you, little man, so I'm going to leave your face alone. How does that sound?"

Oliver tilted his chin up defiantly. "You know, I could win this."

BB threw his head back, giving a bark of laughter. "You," he said, pointing a finger at Oliver, still grinning, "are adorable."

"Do you mind if I take my coat off?" asked Oliver, ignoring the other man's amusement.

"Sure, you should have something that isn't going to be covered in blood," said BB casually.

Oliver went to take off his coat but at the last moment made a dash for the stairs instead, hoping to catch BB off-guard and use his greater speed and agility to get past the other man. He made it to the fifth step of the stairs before a massive hand batted his feet out from underneath him. Oliver reacted quickly, his hands coming up to stop his face from connecting with the stairs but BB was already dragging him back down. Oliver flipped onto his back and kicked out at BB's colossal chest with both feet but his opponent absorbed the impact and reached down, grabbing the front of his shirt and hauling Oliver up off the stairs. Oliver slipped out of his coat, landing on the ground and then darting between BB's legs. He then threw himself onto BB's back and wrapped his arm around the man's neck, squeezing as tightly as he could. Depriving this monolithic man of oxygen seemed like the best way to neutralize him. Once he passed out, Oliver could get up those stairs and that was all he could think about right then. BB staggered backwards with the added weight of Oliver on his back but then regrouped. The man straightened up, causing Oliver's feet to dangle even further from the ground and then he launched himself backwards against the wall, trapping Oliver between the man's huge back and the equally unforgiving wall. Oliver gave a strangled cry as the wind was forced from his lungs in a painful rush. He dragged in a gasp of breath as BB unpinned him to the wall but it was only a split second before Oliver was being rammed back into that same wall and that little breath of air was being forced out again. He felt like a bugged being squashed.

"How you doing, little man?" asked BB, a little breathlessly. "You want to stop?"

"I-I'm just getting warmed up," gasped Oliver, tightening his grip on the other man's neck.

BB stepped forward and reached up over his head, grabbing Oliver's shoulders and then flipped him up over his head. Oliver sailed through the air and landed with a painful crash on the ground, but not before managing to noisily crash through a nearby side table which was up against the other wall. He gave a groan of pain but still managed to flip himself over and stagger to his feet before BB could grab him again.

BB nodded admiringly. "You're a tough little thing, aren't you? Dumb as a box of rocks but tough."

"I'm not even close to showing you how dumb I can be," ground out Oliver and then he grimaced at how ridiculous that sounded. "I mean—"

BB waved his explanation away. "I knew what you meant."

"I've hit my head a lot recently," Oliver said unhappily. "I'm usually don't sound like this big of an idiot."

"I'm sure," said BB understandingly.

BB was standing directly in front of the stairs now and Oliver had to get past him. He ran at the wall jumping up on it and using it to propel him up into the air. The plan had been to simply leap over the top of BB but once again the other man proved surprisingly fast. BB simply plucked Oliver out of the air and wrapped his massive arms around him, crushing him to his chest.

"Give up?" gasped a red-faced Oliver as he felt like the other man was crushing every bone in his body. Oliver felt the rumble of laughter boil up inside of BB.

"Nah, I'm good, thanks," said BB in amusement, tightening his hold on Oliver.

Oliver's arms were trapped by his side and his feet were a long way off the ground. There was only one option left and he gritted his teeth, knowing it was going to hurt like hell. He drew back his head and delivered a violent head butt to BB's face. BB's head snapped back as Oliver's head connected with his nose and both men gave strangled cries of pain. BB loosened his grip on him and Oliver thrashed about, making BB drop him. While his opponent was distracted with nursing his bloody nose, Oliver made another dash for the stairs, again between BB's legs. Oliver thought he'd made it when suddenly he felt one of his legs being grabbed and then he was being dragged back, this time with BB holding him up off the ground upside down. Oliver tried to kick himself free but BB had a death grip on both of his legs now as Oliver dangled above the ground.

"That wasn't very nice," panted BB and before Oliver could respond, BB was ramming him into the wall, using his massive size and weight to pin Oliver there, upside down, face pressed up against the brickwork.

"What's going on? What's happening?" Felicity's concerned voice came from somewhere far above Oliver's head.

"Memicty!" he cried out as best he could, considering his face was mushed into brickwork. _Thank God she was alright. _

There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs rushing down to them.

"Oliver?" Felicity asked in disbelief. "Is that you?" Her confused face bobbed into his peripheral vision. "Oh my God, Oliver! What are you doing?" Felicity turned to the other man. "BB, put him down!"

"You sure?" asked BB, still a little out of breath. "He's kind of a weirdo."

"I'm sure," said Felicity urgently. "Please put him down, he's going purple."

Oliver sucked in an overdue breath as BB's hold on him loosened as he was lowered to the ground, not that gently.

Felicity was by his side, crouching down. "Oliver, what are you doing here?" she asked hastily.

"What am I doing here?" squeaked Oliver, wishing he had more breathe in his body to make that sound a lot more forceful. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Felicity looked taken aback. "Excuse me?"

Oliver sat up, grimacing as his ribs complained about the simple movement. He just hoped BB hadn't crushed anything too vital inside of him. Oliver would worry about that later. Right now his only priority was to get Felicity the hell out of here. He rolled to his feet with a grunt and grabbed her hand. "We'll talk about it when we're out of here."

Felicity pulled her hand from his. "I'm not leaving. I can't. I've got—" She hesitated and looked past Oliver's shoulder and up the stairs.

Oliver's jaw hardened, hating that Felicity felt like she owed anything to the douche bag she had waiting for her upstairs. "I'll handle it," he bit out.

Felicity's eyes went wide. "Handle what? There is nothing to handle."

Oliver was already heading up the stairs, taking them two at a time, a murderous glint in his eye. It'd feel good to hand someone their ass tonight after that whole altercation with BB hadn't turned out exactly as he'd hoped.

"Oliver, stop!" cried out Felicity as she raced up the stairs after him.

"You want me to stop him?" asked BB.

"No, no, I've got this," said Felicity hastily. "Oliver, you can't go up there!"

Oliver was done with being told where he could and couldn't go. He was going to deal with this jerk who thought exploiting young women was perfectly acceptable and then he was going to get Felicity out of here. He'd come this far, there was no stopping now. Felicity caught him at the top of the stairs and grabbed his arm just as Oliver yanked open the door and stormed through, dragging Felicity with him, who wasn't letting go.

"Oliver, no!" she said in distress.

Oliver blinked in the surprisingly bright light after the dimness of the club lighting and immediately focused in on the man sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. "Okay, you," he said determinedly, his tone warning the other man that anything other than complete compliance to Oliver's instructions was going to be a huge mistake. "I want you to—" Oliver blinked again as the other man stood up and walked out into the light. "To… to…" It took him a moment to realize that he actually knew who this other man was, thrown off by placing him in such an out of context scenario. Oliver couldn't believe who he was looking at. "What… why… how?" he stammered, scrambling to work out what all of this could mean and Oliver was coming up with nothing.

Felicity gave an unhappy groan beside him. "I really didn't want you finding out this way, Oliver."

Oliver turned his head to stare at her, not having the first idea about what it was that he'd just found out about but realizing it was nothing like he'd been expecting…

**A/N****: I know, I know, I didn't do the reveal. Turned out the fight took longer than I'd expected. But the next (and I'm guessing, final) chapter will truly reveal all and it will all make perfect sense… hopefully. Day off tomorrow (WAHOO!) so hopefully the final chapter won't be too far away. :D Oh, and any guesses as to who the mystery man might be? Yeah, I know, I haven't given you much to work with, have I? **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N****: Well, so much for the next chapter not being far away. I don't know why I make those rash statements, I really don't. It's practically a guarantee that I won't get a chapter done. That muse doesn't like being told what to do… which is why she's got all those outstanding retraining orders out against her. **

**Anyways, as promised, you will finally get your answer as to what Felicity is up to in this chapter. But, as not promised, turns out, this isn't going to be my final chapter. I've got at least another one which will be followed up by an epilogue which will contain the words 'flaming testicles' at least once. Bet you JK Rowling never offered that kind of enticement to her readers… which is probably a good thing as her market was originally the tweens… best to keep testicles, flaming or otherwise, far away from them to avoid any unpleasantness and your name being included on a register that rhymes with 'hex suspender'. **

**I've wandered off again, where was I? Oh yes, breaking promises of this being your last chapter in this story. It isn't… build a bridge… have all the local dignities come out, listen to boring speeches, cut a ribbon and then… get over it. I know, it seems like a lot of work but there might be cake afterwards… or you can at least swipe the scissors so it won't be a total waste of your time… just don't run with them… the scissors that is… you can go nuts with the cake, you have my permission, nobody ever put their eye out with cake… except for that one documented case of that over achieving birthday boy who tried to make sure he blew out all his candles at once and got too close, sending his eyelashes, eyebrows and nasal hair up in a flaming birthday salute not soon to be forgotten… although technically that was the candles fault and not really the cake but think about it, when do you ever see birthday candles with no cake… so yeah, they're totally in on at together. Bottom line, things beginning with C have the potential to put your eye out… and are generally delicious. If I could only eat food from one letter group for the rest of my life, it'd have to be the C's… cake, chocolate, caramel, cow, chicken, chips, churros, caramelized onions (adjectives count!)… the list goes on and on. **

**Okay, now I'm hungry. I'm off to get something to eat. You lot, stay here and read the chapter and no one is allowed to leave the table until you've finished your plate and for the love of God, elbows off the table! It's the only thing which separates us from the animals… that and we generally fling far less of our own faeces about at family gatherings… I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just saying there is less of it. **

**Enjoy…**

**CHAPTER SEVEN **

"What am I finding out about?" asked Oliver unevenly. He looked back at the other man in the room. "Why are you here?"

The tall, African American older man gave a smile. "And a good evening to you, Mr. Queen. I didn't realize you'd be joining us this evening." His lips twitched in amusement at a flustered looking Felicity. "Although, I'm guessing I'm not alone in that particular lack of knowledge."

Oliver's head was spinning and it wasn't only because of being hung upside down and squeezed to within an inch of his life. What the hell was Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne's right hand man, doing here in Starling City? Or, mores to the point, making secret meetings with Felicity in a strip club? Why did he keep having more questions and no answers?

"Lucius, I'm so sorry about this, this isn't what it looks like," said Felicity hastily.

Lucius arched an eyebrow. "And what does it look like?" he asked mildly. "That your employer appears to be stalking you?"

Felicity gave a fake, loud laugh. "No, that's crazy. Oliver would never do that." She looked at him, expression urging him to agree. "Right?"

"I'm not stalking Felicity," agreed Oliver irritably. "Why does everyone keep saying that all of a sudden? I'm just—"

"Oliver has a strip club addiction," blurted out Felicity, head bobbing up and down as she tried to persuade Lucius as to why Oliver might be there. "It's terrible. Totally out of control. We're trying to keep it out of the media."

"I don't have a strip club addiction," snapped Oliver, vaguely offended. He pointed a finger at her. "That had better not be on my con's list because that's just not fair." Oliver saw the way Lucius was looking at him with interest. "Felicity keeps a pros and cons list about people she knows," he said, trying to explain. Saying that out loud to someone just sounded weird. "That's not weird," said Oliver quickly.

"Aha," said Lucius sagely, giving nothing away.

"Oliver," said Felicity, fixing a smile to her face, "the first step in getting help is admitting you have a problem in the first place."

"I don't have a problem," said an aggravated Oliver.

"You're in a strip club," pointed out Lucius easily.

"So are you," snapped Oliver, his eyes narrowing. "What, they don't have strip clubs in Gotham City? You have to come to Starling City? Maybe I'm not the one with the problem."

Lucius just gave a benign smile. "There are many such establishments in Gotham City but just not any with this talented young lady in them." He inclined his head towards Felicity who looked a little embarrassed at the praise.

Oliver looked at Felicity too and then finally took a moment to take in the room they were standing in. Bits of electronics were set out on a bench and several computers monitors were running, seeming to be analyzing data and there was something laid out on table directly behind Felicity he couldn't quite make out. "Is somebody going to explain to me what is going on?" asked Oliver, a little more loudly than he'd intended. The doorway was suddenly filled with a huge mass.

BB looked at Felicity. "Everything okay in here?"

"Yes, BB," said Felicity quickly. "We're fine. It's okay, you don't have to worry." She smiled up at him. "Thank you."

"Just call if you need me," he said, giving a pointed look in Oliver's direction. "I'm going to be taking care of my nose."

Felicity winced. "Oliver's sorry about that," she said hastily.

"Pretty sure I'm not," said Oliver flatly. Why wasn't anyone answering his questions? Why was he still in the dark?

"Oliver," hissed Felicity disapprovingly. "Don't be rude."

"He tried to kill me," bit out Oliver.

"If I'd wanted you dead, little man," said BB easily over his shoulder as he lumbered away, "you'd be dead."

Oliver scowled at that comment, feeling his frustration threatening to boil over into a complete meltdown. "Felicity," he ground out from behind clenched teeth, "will you tell me what the hell is going on?"

Felicity wrinkled her nose and looked torn. "I don't really know where to start."

"Start at the beginning," suggested Oliver tightly. He couldn't take much more of this.

Felicity bit her bottom lip. "Actually, I think the best place to start is in the middle."

Oliver would take it, just as long as there was some kind of forward movement in all of this. "Fine," he said sharply, "start in the middle, just start, okay?"

Felicity's head bobbed up and down and then she took a deep breath. "Okay. So, it was about eight weeks ago and I was on my lunch break…"

**#**

_Felicity walked along the busy street and took a long sip from her cup of coffee and gave a happy sigh. She needed that. Even with the caffeine buzzing away inside of her, Felicity was forced to stifle a yawn with one hand as she walked along. She was exhausted but knew she had no one else to blame but herself. That was what you got for burning the candle at both ends. Felicity didn't regret it though and she wasn't about to stop. What she was doing was too important. She was almost at the end of the street when she realized a long, black limousine which was slowly driving along the street beside her. Felicity shot it a quick glance, only seeing her own reflection in the heavily tinted windows. She gave a little frown, picking up her pace but the limo kept pace with her before speeding up and pulling up a little ahead of her. A tall, blonde man in a black suit and tie unfurled himself from the driver's seat and stepped up onto the sidewalk and stood directly in front of her, forcing Felicity to stop walking._

"_Ms. Smoak?" asked the man politely. _

"_Umm… yes," said Felicity hesitantly. This didn't bode well._

"_My employer would like a moment of your time, if it's convenient."_

_Felicity blinked and threw a quick look at the limo again. "Your employer?" _

_The driver stepped closer to the car and opened the back door. Felicity bent down so she could look inside. "Oh," she said in surprise, "it's you." Felicity realized that might have sounded a bit rude. "I mean, hello, Mr. Fox." She instantly recognized the distinguished older man from when he'd attended a couple of business conferences Oliver had attended. They'd never been formally introduced but if you knew anything about big business, you knew of Lucius Fox, the head of the board of Wayne Enterprises. There was a quiet air of unassuming command about him that Felicity had liked and during one of big meet and greets she'd somehow found herself being press ganged into passing out appetizers to all the high flyers. Felicity remembered Lucius being the only one of the crowd who actually made eye contact with her and smiled, acknowledging her presence as a person, rather than something supporting a tray of food. _

_Lucius leaned forward a little in his seat and smiled up at Felicity. "Hello, Ms. Smoak," he replied with a little smile. "I was hoping to steal a minute of your time, if it's not too inconvenient." _

_Felicity hesitated. "I'm on my lunch break." _

"_I promise not to keep you too long." _

_Felicity's curiosity was piqued. What could someone like Lucius Fox want with her? She climbed into the car without any more protests. _

"So, what, you just get into random men's car?" interrupted Oliver in frustration. "Is that something you're doing now?" This was crazy. Felicity frequented strip joints and got into strange men's cars. Was she trying to get herself killed? Oliver felt that vein in his temple begin to throb.

Felicity looked at him in surprise. "Lucius wasn't a random man. I knew him." She wrinkled her nose before correcting herself. "Knew of him."

"I know of Ted Bundy but that doesn't make it a safe thing to get into a car with him."

"None taken," said Lucius mildly as Oliver compared him to a serial killer.

"That's a ridiculous comparison," said Felicity hotly. "Obviously Lucius isn't Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy is white… and dead."

"It's true," said Lucius easily. "I am neither of those things."

Oliver's jaw hardened, ignoring the other man as all of his attention was on Felicity. "You know that wasn't my point. I was saying that just because you know of someone, doesn't mean you know anything about them. How did you know that he wasn't running some kind of sex slave trading ring?" It was aggravating Oliver that Felicity seemed determined not to see his point. These were dangerous times and it wasn't safe to trust anyone. It was terrifying him to think Felicity could still be so naïve about the intentions of those around her, even after all that she'd seen.

Lucius' lips twitched. "None taken," he said again.

"You could have been killed, or worse," Oliver said accusingly.

"Sex slave trading ring?" repeated Felicity in disbelief. "Can you hear yourself? That's the most asinine thing I've ever heard. He runs one of the biggest companies on the face of the earth. When would Lucius get time to run a sex ring?"

"I'd have people working for me," said Lucius conversationally. "Obviously I wouldn't be involved in the day to day running of the sex slave ring." Both Oliver and Felicity looked at him at that and Lucius have a little shrug of his shoulders. "All businesses have a fairly standard structure to them. I can't imagine the sex trade would be any different." He half-smiled. "Although that is only an educated guess on my behalf as I don't actually run any kind of slave ring, sexual or otherwise." There was an impish twinkle in his eyes. "Sorry to disappoint, Mr. Queen."

"Nobody thinks you'd do anything like that, Lucius," said Felicity quickly. She glared at Oliver. "Oliver, apologize to Lucius."

"I didn't say he ran a sex trade ring," snapped Oliver. "I said you had no way of knowing what kind of man you were trapping yourself inside a car with and I stand by that statement." His lips thinned. "And stop telling me to apologize to everyone."

"I will if you stop being an ass face to everyone," threw back Felicity in vexation.

"Ass face?" gasped Oliver. "Excuse me?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lucius put a hand to his mouth and turn his head away, covering a smile.

"You're being rude to Lucius for no good reason and it looks like you broke BB's nose when he was just doing his job – they're all things an ass face would do," said Felicity sharply.

"Ass face isn't a word," said Oliver, his voice getting louder as he once again lost control of a conversation with Felicity.

"You're right, it's two words," sniped back Felicity. She paused and cocked her head. "Or maybe it's hyphenated… I'm not sure about that one."

"I probably wouldn't hyphenate," offered up Lucius helpfully. "Hyphenation is usually more for compound adjectives and ass face is made up of two nouns rather than the more accepted noun/adjective/participle combination."

"Oh," said Felicity thoughtfully, "okay then. Two words it is."

Oliver felt like he'd fallen through the looking glass. Nothing made sense and he was only getting more confused as people around him kept talking. "I didn't come here for an English lesson," he said sharply. "I came here for answers."

"And I was giving them to you but you interrupted me," said Felicity hotly. "If you'd stop interrupting me, you'd have your answers already."

"Fine," huffed Oliver, "I won't interrupt again, no matter how much of this story contains you doing wilfully dangerous things that you should know better about not doing."

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Geez, I always thought your middle name was Jonas, not Drama."

Oliver's lips twisted in vague annoyance at her pun on his name. "You've been waiting to use that joke for a while, haven't you?"

Felicity grinned. "Yeah," she admitted freely. "You're annoyingly stoic and low key most of the time. There really hasn't been a good opportunity to get that one in until tonight." She eyed him a little suspiciously then. "When apparently you've gone insane."

"I'm not insane," said Oliver, feeling exactly that. "I'm just waiting for my answers." He looked at Lucius. "What did you want with Felicity?"

Lucius looked over at Felicity. "I think I'll let Felicity finish her story. She was doing such a fine job of it before I became a sex trading serial killer."

Oliver blew out a long-suffering breath and folded his arms in front of his chest, looking expectantly at Felicity. He was now 98% sure this wasn't a sex thing but it was surprising how 2% could still really eat away at your peace of mind. Oliver needed this story to be over and done with and then maybe he could start thinking straight. Hope springs eternal.

_Felicity nursed her coffee in front of her and gave the man sitting across from her a nervous smile. She looked down at her coffee and made a little grimace. "I'm sorry, is it alright to have a drink in here?" Felicity looked around at the plush limo fittings and prayed she wasn't going to make a fool of herself and spill her coffee over the expensive leather and carpet. "I should really give it up," she continued on hastily. "I know it's not great for your health, especially how much I have. I was thinking of switching to green tea. I hear that's amazing for you." Felicity knew she was rambling and bit her bottom lip, forcing herself to stop. _

_Lucius just smiled. "I hear that too," he said conversationally. "However I am too old to give up one of my most pleasurable vices." _

_Felicity gave a nervous laugh. "I guess." _

"_Ms. Smoak—"_

"_You can call me Felicity, Mr. Fox," she said hastily. _

_He inclined his head. "Felicity it is if you will call me Lucius." _

_Felicity's head bobbed up and down. "Okay… Lucius." _

"_I suppose you're wondering what all this is about?" _

"_A bit, yes." _

_Lucius settled himself more comfortably against the plush leather seat and crossed his legs. "As you are no doubt aware, Wayne Enterprises has a finger in a lot of pies. We straddle a lot of different business portfolios in an effort to make ourselves relevant in this current economic climate." _

"_Okay," said Felicity slowly, not sure where this was going. _

"_One of our interests is in the development of technology for our defense forces," continued on Lucius amicably. "Wayne Enterprises puts millions of dollars every year into the research and development of revolutionary new technology that would ensure a safer future for this great nation and its allies." _

_Felicity's stomach clenched, suddenly having an inkling of what this might be about. She tried to keep her face impassive as she waited for Lucius to finish talking but inside she was scrambling to think her way out of this. _

"_As you can imagine, a lot of what we do in that sector is highly classified and monitored very closely." _

"_Of course," said Felicity unevenly, heart pounding. _

"_To that end, we've developed a system whereby we are able to monitor any unusual cyber activity using certain key words that might indicate an overt interest in areas we are engaged in." Lucius was looking at her intently. "I'm sure I don't have to explain to you how such a thing works, not with your strong IT background." _

_Felicity swallowed hard and shook her head. She knew exactly what Lucius was talking about. The government used it all the time in their war against terror, tracking internet searches of individuals who flagged with certain internet activities, like how to make bombs and looking into known terror groups. "I-I thought that was illegal for anyone outside the government?" _

_Lucius half-smiled and lifted a shoulder. "Let's just call it a grey area of the law when it comes to Wayne Enterprises protecting their investments." _

"You stole another company's tech?" asked Oliver in shock. "Why would you do that?" Felicity glared at him and he held up a hand. "Okay, not interrupting. Keep going on with your story."

"_I didn't steal anything," blurted out Felicity. _

"_I didn't say you did," said Lucius mildly._

"_I was just doing research," said Felicity uncomfortably. Damn, why hadn't she thought about covering her tracks better? _

"_And what interesting research it was," commented Lucius. "From what I can work out, you seem to be teaching yourself more than one strand of bio-engineering with a bent towards armament tech." He tilted his head. "Rather a curious line of interest for a young woman such as yourself." _

_Felicity plastered a bright smile on her face. "I like to keep my mind active," she hedged. "I'm thinking of teaching myself Japanese next." _

"_And I'm sure you'll do admirably at that endeavor as you seem to have done with your current project." _

"_I don't have a current project," said Felicity swiftly. "I'm just messing around." _

"_Messing around with engineering what appears to be some kind of bio-suit with both offensive and defensive capabilities," observed Lucius easily. _

"_That's not against the law," said Felicity quickly and then paused. "Is it?" _

"_What it is, Felicity, is some very impressive creative thinking in a field which is just starting to realize its own potential." _

"_Oh," said Felicity, a little taken aback, "ah… thanks." _

"_I don't know if you know this about me, Felicity, but I use to head up the R&D department of Wayne Enterprises." _

_Felicity blinked. "You did?" _

"_For many years and I must confess I still like to keep an eye on what is going on in that department." He smiled. "I still have a passion for the work." Lucius' gaze became intent again. "And an eye for talent. Talent such as a young woman who has taught herself the intricacies of bio-engineering and seems to be putting it to use to make some kind of wearable exoskeleton with intriguing possibilities." He tilted his head. "And even more intriguing questions as to why she might even want such a thing." _

"_I-I'm a really bad knitter," she blurted out. "I can't do anything but knit back and forth and I don't know how to end off and I just needed a new hobby." _

"_And this was the one you settled on?" _

_Felicity bit her bottom lip. "Yes." This was bad. She just couldn't think of a way to explain this away without giving away the truth of the matter and revealing Oliver's secret identity. The suit was for him, to protect him out in the field. The idea had come to her when she'd been patching up yet another injury of Oliver's from yet another fight. There had to be a way for him to be more protected when he went out onto the streets, a way that didn't mean bulky body armor which would slow him down. So, Felicity had started to research around the subject, spending many a late night looking into how to make a lightweight, flexible body armor and things had snowballed from there. The last thing she'd expected was for anyone to notice what she was up to. She hadn't even told Oliver or Diggle. "Am… am I in trouble?" _

_Lucius gave a little laugh. "Not at all." _

"_Then… then what is this?" she asked hesitantly. _

"_You've piqued my curiosity, Felicity and the last time someone did that… well…" Lucius just smiled. "Let's just saved my life was never the same after that." _

"_Oh, okay," said Felicity, not really understanding what that meant. _

_Lucius leaned forward in his seat. "I'd very much like to know where you're up to with your little project." _

_Felicity hesitated, knowing this was potentially a slippery slope. If she let someone else into what she was doing, there was going to be inevitable questions of why she was doing this at all. It put Oliver's secret at risk and Felicity didn't know if she could do that. "I haven't really gotten anywhere with it," she said unevenly. "It's mainly just a lot of random ideas scratched onto bits of paper all over the place." _

_Lucius raised an eyebrow. "So, you haven't been purchasing materials from a certain Mr. Eugene Needlemeyer of late, a man known for his penchant for providing certain questionably acquired weaponry for a discrete clientele?" _

"A black market arms dealer?" squawked Oliver in abject horror. "You're going to black market arms dealers now?" Was there no end to the dangers Felicity seemed intent on exposing herself to these days? "Oh my God, Felicity, are you kidding me?" he demanded to know, voice raised in agitation. "Do you have some kind of death wish? Why don't you just step out in front of a speeding truck and be done with it?" Oliver just couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was enough that Felicity was working on some kind of secret project without his knowledge but to know that she was exposing herself to all of these unnecessary dangers was just too much for him.

"Eugene isn't a bad guy," protested Felicity. "In fact, he's kind of sweet. He's the one who gave me the documentary about the dangers of caffeine to watch."

Oliver's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "Illegal arms dealer," he ground out. "They are not sweet, Felicity. They're bad, bad men who deal in death and you should be having nothing to do with them." Oliver threw up his hands. "Why am I even having to explain this to you? Why isn't it self-evident?"

"I needed to source my materials from somewhere," said Felicity defensively. "And Eugene was like one-stop shopping. Okay, yes, his profession isn't exactly an honorable one but that doesn't immediately make him one of the bad guys. He's got a cat he really dotes on – Mr. Mxyzptlk." She wrinkled her nose. "I think I pronounced that right."

"I don't care if he has an entire herd of cats," bit out Oliver.

"Clowder," interjected Lucius.

Oliver tore his attention from Felicity to glare at the other man. "What?"

"The collective noun for cats is a clowder," said Lucius easily. He smiled. "I like collective nouns."

"Why am I the only one who seems to get how serious this is?" asked Oliver angrily. He sent an accusatory look at Felicity. "Why would you put yourself in that kind of danger?"

"Such a good question," commented Lucius calmly, "and no, Mr. Queen, you're not the only one who was concerned with Felicity's safety and that is why I offered to come on board with her project."

"What does that mean?" Oliver demanded to know.

"Lucius has been kind of mentoring me, I guess you'd call it," said Felicity, looking over at the older man and smiling. "When my project stalled or hit a wall, we'd do a consultation and work out a solution." She looked back at Oliver. "That's what he offered me in the limo that day – a collaboration on the suit I was working on."

Lucius nodded. "Amongst other things."

Oliver scowled. "What kind of other things?" He knew he should be feeling relieved about finally finding out what Felicity was up to but Oliver was still struggling to work out exactly how he did feel about all of this.

"It was nothing," said Felicity quickly.

"I offered Felicity a job," countered Lucius.

Oliver looked at her in surprise. "He did?"

"I said no, obviously," said Felicity, looking a little uncomfortable.

"She did indeed," said Lucius, "and to quite an admirable salary hike, not to mention many perks that most people would find hard to resist."

"I wasn't doing any of this for the money or perks," said Felicity, avoiding eye contact with Oliver.

"I worked that out very quickly," agreed Lucius. "There was obviously something else far more compelling driving you." He gave Oliver a considered look. "Something that money and recognition couldn't compete with." That impish twinkle was back in his eyes. "And besides, I doubt Wayne Enterprises could compete with the intense interest in their employee's lives as Queen Consolidated seems to offer." His lips twitched. "I'm not sure Bruce Wayne would really feel the need to track his employees every movement and appoint himself as their personal bodyguard. Queen Consolidated has over twenty thousand employees… you must be quite the busy boy, Oliver."

"Felicity is my personal assistant," said Oliver defensively, as though that would offer some kind of explanation to him bursting through the doors and demanding answers about an employee's personal life.

"I can certainly see that whatever this is, it is definitely personal," said Lucius knowingly.

Felicity blushed. "Oh no, it's not like that. We're not together."

Lucius just smiled at her. "Trust me, young lady, if ever two people were together, it's the two of you."

Oliver and Felicity exchanged awkward looks.

Oliver was very conscious of the fact this was a sensitive subject for Felicity, particularly after his faux paus from earlier that day and the gossip he'd accidentally inflamed. "Felicity and I aren't romantically involved," he said firmly.

Lucius just gave a little shrug. "I suspect it would be much easier for the two of you if you were," he said with surprising insight. "Grey areas are always so much trickier to navigate… but usually so much more rewarding in the end, I find."

Oliver and Felicity looked at each other again before Felicity quickly looked away. "Lucius, really, you've got this all wrong. Oliver has nothing to do with our project. You can see he doesn't know anything about all of this."

And that fact still irked Oliver, far more than it should.

"It's my own private project that I knew Oliver wouldn't have any interest in because why would he? It's not like he has a use for a suit like that," babbled Felicity nervously.

Oliver knew what Felicity was doing and had a strong suspicion Lucius did too. He gave the other man a hard look, trying to work out just how much he knew.

"Oh, I know exactly why Oliver is here and where his interest lies," said Lucius evenly. "It's obvious. He's here to protect what's his and he's made it patently obvious just who it is you belong to tonight."

"I-I… what?" stammered Felicity, fresh color flooding her cheeks.

Oliver's head came up, jaw hardening, not jumping in to deny the claims. After tonight it was impossible to deny the proprietorial feelings he had towards Felicity. What they meant and what he was prepared to do about them was another thing entirely and no doubt plenty of fodder for many sleepless nights to come.

"I'm talking in regards to intellectual property, of course," continued on Lucius smoothly. "No doubt your contract at Queen Consolidated has a clause stating that any ideas or innovations you come up with are the property of the company." He smiled at Oliver. "Mr. Queen here is just clearly protecting his investment and making sure any rival company doesn't steal a potential money spinner out from under his nose."

"Oh, right, yeah, that's it," said Felicity in relief. "That's exactly why Oliver is here."

"Obviously he spotted your talent long ago, that's why you were promoted from the IT department to his PA."

"Yup, that's exactly what happened," agreed Felicity readily. She looked at Oliver. "Right?"

"Right," said Oliver calmly, even though he wasn't as convinced as Felicity seemed to be that Lucius was buying what he, himself, was selling.

"I can understand that," said Lucius, picking up his hat from a nearby table top. "Something rather similar happened to me." He put the hat on his head. "In fact, I suspect almost identically the same." Lucius smiled warmly at Felicity. "Now, I must be going. It's getting late for an old man like me." He glanced at Oliver. "And I suspect you two have some talking to do." He walked over and kissed Felicity on the cheek. "A delight as always, my dear."

"Thank you, Lucius, for everything," said Felicity, touching his arm. "Will you be in town long?"

"For another two days. I'll call you."

"That would be great."

Lucius turned towards Oliver and held out his hand. "Mr. Queen, informative as always to see you again."

Oliver doubted Lucius was talking about business with that last comment but he shook his hand and returned the nicety. "Lucius, sorry for any misunderstanding."

"Oh, I think I can say that I think I can comfortably say I understand completely," said Lucius mischievously. "Far more than you could even realize."

With that suitably cryptic comment, Lucius doffed his hat to them both and was making his way out of the room. After he was gone there was a long silence in the room.

Felicity wrapped her arms protectively around her waist and eyed him warily. "So," she said at last, "are you mad at me?"

Oliver stared back at her. "That's one of the emotions I'm feeling, sure," he admitted unsteadily, "but it's in a long queue of a lot of others." Oliver looked away briefly, to try and collect his thoughts. He looked back at Felicity. "I have questions… a very, very long list of questions."

"But I've just explained everything."

"Your explanation has pretty much just left me with more questions," said Oliver flatly.

"Oh," said Felicity, looking surprised. "I thought it was all very straight forward."

"If it was straight forward my head wouldn't feel like it was about to explode," he said unevenly.

"That's probably because of your fight with BB."

Oliver captured her gaze determinedly. "Trust me, Felicity, it's because of you. Everything is because of you."

She frowned and pouted a little. "I'm giving you a headache?"

_Headache, sleepless nights, reduced mental capacity, emotional outbursts, poor motor control_. There seemed no end to the list of afflictions Oliver was currently suffering from and it was all because of one woman. "Amongst other things, yes," said Oliver wryly.

Felicity looked unhappy to hear that as she moved her shoulders restlessly. "Okay, what do you want to know?"

Oliver took a deep breath and picked the most important question to him first. "Why?"

"Why what?"

He held her gaze unflinchingly, knowing he'd find the truth there. "Why didn't you tell me about all of this?" Oliver asked unhappily. "Why did you keep it a secret? Why didn't you feel like you could talk to me about it?"

"That-that's a lot of why's," said Felicity unsteadily.

"I've got others," said Oliver grimly, "but just answer these ones first." He braced himself for her answer, not sure what he was afraid of other than hearing that Felicity didn't feel like he was important enough to her to let her in on her secrets. Oliver really didn't want that to be the case and he tried to find a way to prepare himself if it turned out to be true but found that he couldn't. He wanted to matter to Felicity the way she obviously mattered to him. And if he didn't… well, this night was about to suck donkey balls… even more than it already had.

**A/N****: Okay, so there you have it, Felicity's secret out in the open… but no doubt you have as many questions as Ollie, so that's why there is going to be another chapter. I do hope that all my readers have seen at least one of the Dark Knight movies… otherwise the chapter was probably a little confusing for you regarding who Lucius Fox is. Here's a hint – he looks an awful lot like Morgan Freeman. For homework, check out any of the movies so you'll be up to speed, okay? Also, threw a little cookie in there for DC enthusiasts with the cat's name… couldn't resist. ;) Extra bonus points if you got the reference. **

**Now, all of the details will be revealed in the next chapter which will be heavy on the Olicity feels. You are cordially invited to attend… dress smart/casual… preferably non-absorbent or flammable… capes at attendee's discretion… knee-high boots with undies on the outside, not negotiable. I'm lubing up my spandex as we speak… okay, that was just an unnecessarily disturbing mental image, I apologise. Best to go back to the imagery of families flinging their poop at each other… way more palatable… palatable may have not been the right word to use there, insert your own adjective… that's what she said. Seriously, that joke never gets old and has infinite applications… that's what she said. **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N****: Long chapter. Used up daily allowance of words to write story. None left to do witty preamble. You're on your own, peeps… brace accordingly and dive in…**

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

"What are you thinking right now?" asked Felicity, looking at him a little strangely.

"Donkey balls," said Oliver and then realized he'd just said that aloud.

"Okay," said Felicity slowly.

Oliver grimaced. "Please, Felicity," he begged her. "Just answer my question."

Felicity made an unhappy face. "Isn't it obvious?"

"I really hope not," said Oliver unevenly.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to make a fool of myself," she blurted out.

Oliver hadn't been expecting that. "What? What are you talking about?" Right about then Oliver felt like he had the market cornered on that particular concern.

"I came up with this idea and I didn't have the first clue if I could make anything come of it." Felicity rubbed her arm. "I didn't want to look like an idiot in front of you and Diggle while I tried to work out if my ideas were even possible." She looked around the room. "That's why I got this place. So I could work in private."

"A strip joint?" asked Oliver in disbelief. "In the worst part of town."

"It was somewhere I could afford," she said defensively. "And the security is great."

"The security isn't that great," ground out Oliver. It was such a dangerous area. Women were attacked nightly around here and it chilled him to the bone to think of Felicity spending so much time in a place like this.

"You didn't exactly win in your fight against BB," Felicity countered.

"It was a tie," said Oliver flatly.

Felicity made a little face. "Oh, okay, sure," she humored him.

Oliver's lips tightened, a little offended that Felicity thought that he couldn't have taken the other man but he had bigger concerns right now. "So, you didn't tell me but you could tell someone like Lucius Fox?"

"Lucius approached me," said Felicity quickly. "And once I realized that he'd worked out what I was up to, it made even more sense to keep you away from the whole thing. I didn't want Lucius anywhere near your secret. I didn't want him figuring out why I was doing this and for who."

"And you think just setting up shop in a strip club did that?" asked Oliver disapprovingly.

"It did until you bounded through the door doing reeking of testosterone," said Felicity in frustration. "Now I'm not sure what Lucius thinks. I'd kept you out of all this up until tonight." She looked up at him with confusion. "I still don't know why you are even here, Oliver? How did you know where I was? Have you been following me?" Felicity's eyebrows shot up. "You've been following me?" she gasped.

"What am I meant to do when you lie to me and spend your nights in a strip club?" protested Oliver.

"I didn't lie to you," said Felicity hotly. "If anything, there was just a bit of mild omitting on my behalf."

"How is you frequenting a strip club a mild omission?" bit out Oliver.

"Why are you so hung up on this being a strip club?" she asked in frustration. "I'm just renting the spare top floor. It's not like—" Felicity stopped abruptly and then she gave a little strangled gasp. "Oh my God, you thought I was in here stripping, didn't you?"

Oliver felt guilty for thinking that now Felicity was staring at him so accusingly but up until about five minutes ago, it had been the only thing which had made sense. What was I meant to think?" snapped Oliver. "You were spending hours in here every night and you weren't qualified for any other job at the club—"

"Wait a minute, all that small talk, your sudden interest in whether I could do accounting or mix drinks," said Felicity, piecing it all together. "You were just trying to work out what I was doing here, weren't you?"

Oliver didn't like how Felicity made that sound so critical. "So what if I was?"

"I thought you actually wanted to know more about me," said Felicity in outrage. "Instead you were just investigating me."

"I did want to know more about you," countered Oliver.

"Yeah, you wanted to know if I took my clothes off for men!" she threw back angrily.

"You were spending every spare minute at this place," said Oliver, not backing down. "What was I meant to think? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it's a damn good chance it's a duck!"

Felicity's eyes went wide as something else seemed to occur to her. She pointed an accusatory finger at him. "That ridiculous pay rise you gave me. It was because of all this, wasn't it?"

Oliver gave a defiant shrug. "What if it was? I figured if you were doing this money, then if I gave you more money, you wouldn't need to keep on stripping."

"I wasn't stripping!" she shouted at him.

"I know that now!" he shouted back. "At the time it seemed like a logical and discrete solution to the problem."

"You didn't think giving me that crazy amount of money was going to flag as being a bit weird?" Felicity demanded to know.

"I had to make it comparable to what you could be earning here for the plan to work."

"You thought I could earn that kind of money stripping?" asked Felicity in disbelief.

"Of course you could," said Oliver sharply, knowing full well the potential earning capacity for someone like Felicity. There was an air of sweet innocence to her that he knew would entice men to lay down big money just so they could have a taste of that purity, even if just for a few minutes, not caring that they were defiling that sweetness in the process. "There are men who come to these kinds of places who'd take one look at you and do anything to have a woman like you." Felicity looked taken aback and it frustrated Oliver that she could be this naïve about how men were.

"So, am I the prettiest whore in the whore house or am I a duck?" she asked in annoyance, glaring at him.

Oliver took a step closer to Felicity, grabbing her arms and needing for her to take his concerns seriously. "You have to know what kind of danger you were putting yourself in by coming to this place," he said in aggravation. "Do you really think that some of the men coming here would be making the distinction that you're working upstairs?"

"It doesn't matter what they thought," countered Felicity angrily. "I'm not for sale."

Oliver's hands tightened on her arms, his face scant inches from hers as his frustration bubbled over. "You think you could stop a man taking what he wanted from you?"

Felicity tried to move away from him, taking a step back but Oliver didn't let her go. Instead he stepped with her and kept walking, using his larger size to advance on her, forcing Felicity to keep on stepping backwards. "Do you think when it came down to it that you would get any say in the matter?" Oliver demanded to know. Felicity bumped up against the wall behind her and he kept her trapped there with his body. The blood was thumping in his veins as he closed in on her, determined Felicity should finally understand the vulnerable position she'd put herself in.

Felicity brought her hands up and pushed hard against his chest. "I can take care of myself! I knew what I was doing."

Oliver didn't budge. "Then make me let you go," he said angrily. "Prove to me you had all the angles covered."

Felicity struggled against him, trying to break away from where he had her pressed up against the wall. "Oliver, stop it!"

He grabbed her wrists and pulled them above her head, pinning them to the wall. "Is that your big defense, Felicity?" Oliver demanded to know. "Asking them to stop? How do you think that is going to work out for you?" Felicity squirmed against him but Oliver just leant more of his body weight against hers and she was rendered completely helpless.

Breathless and red-faced, Felicity still wasn't giving in. "You're crazy!" she yelled at him unevenly. "Nothing like this was ever going to happen to me."

"It's happening now," he pushed her. "And there's not a damn thing you can do about it and that's my point," Oliver bit out.

"I could scream for BB," said Felicity defiantly.

"And he'd hear you over all that noise from the club?" said Oliver bitterly. "Just admit it, Felicity. You're out of your depth."

"I'm not admitting anything," panted Felicity, trying once again to get free of him. "I'm not the one spying on people and calling them whores!" She squirmed against him violently. "Get off of me!"

"I didn't call you a whore!" he shouted at her, angered that Felicity wouldn't admit that he'd been right to worry about her.

Felicity glared up at him. "No, you just thought I took my clothes off for money," she said furiously. "What the hell, Oliver?"

"I didn't know what to think!" he said loudly. "All I knew was that you were keeping secrets from me."

"And you think that gives you the right to behave like this?" asked Felicity in outrage. "What if I had been stripping? What was your game plan?"

"I would have made you stop."

Felicity's eyes went wide. "What, thrown me over your shoulder and carried me out of here, kicking and screaming?"

Oliver's jaw came up, his expression hardening. "If that's what it would have taken."

"You don't own me!" gasped Felicity. "I'm not your possession."

"What you are is my—" Oliver stopped abruptly, not knowing what he wanted to say next. Felicity was his responsibility? His to protect? His girl?

_You'll always be my girl, Felicity. _

Oliver's own words suddenly came back to haunt him. He'd been reassuring her at the time of her place in his life, no matter how much things changed around them. Now as he stared down into her furious blue eyes that held the smallest amount of fear, Oliver had to wonder if she'd even want to hear an assurance like that, not when it ended up with him manhandling her against a wall._ What the hell was he doing?_ "Felicity," he rasped, voice full of regret. Oliver abruptly let go of Felicity's wrists and took an unsteady step backwards, untangling himself from the softness of her body and feeling oddly bereft because of it. He gave her a pained look. "Felicity, I'm sorry."

Felicity was eyeing him warily, rubbing her wrists and still leaning against the wall.

He shook his head at her, expression full of contrition. "Did I hurt you?"

Felicity straightened up, still watching him with some trepidation. "You're confusing me, Oliver," she said shakily. "What is wrong with you? Why are you behaving like this? I don't understand."

Oliver looked away briefly, not really blaming Felicity for her confusion. He didn't really have an excuse other than this whole thing had been driving him crazy and all of that frustration and anxiety had just burst out of him all at once. And then he'd taken it all out on the one person he been trying to protect this whole time. "I-I just need to know you're safe, Felicity," he rasped. "I need to know you're not taking any unnecessary risks."

"I'm not," said Felicity earnestly.

Oliver gritted his teeth against a new surge of vexation. He waved a hand around. "Look where we are."

"I know this isn't the safest place to be," she countered, "but you said unnecessary risk and this was necessary. I was protecting you and your secret."

Oliver felt a stab of guilt at hearing that. "I don't want to be the reason you put yourself in these dangerous situations," he said sharply.

"Well, tough, you don't get a say in the matter," Felicity shot back. "The potential benefits outweigh any potential risk."

"There is no benefit worth the risk of you getting hurt," said Oliver tightly.

"How is my life more important than yours?" she demanded to know.

"I'm not saying that."

"Yes, you are. You don't want me to do anything where I could potentially get hurt but you're okay to let something go that could potentially stop you from being hurt," Felicity argued her point.

"That's not the same thing," said Oliver, feeling himself losing control of this argument… again.

Felicity took a step towards him. "Oliver, this exoskeleton I'm designing can keep you safe, maybe even save your life. Don't you think that's worth taking a few chances over?"

"You could have worked on the suit at the Foundry, where I know you'd be safe because I'd be there too," said Oliver in irritation.

"I couldn't have brought Lucius or the others to the Foundry—"

"Others?" asked Oliver in surprise.

Felicity wrinkled her nose. "I've had to bring in others to consult with over the suit. It's pretty complicated tech that involves a lot of different strands of science."

"And these people, they all know you're working on this exoskeleton?"

"No, of course not, only Lucius knows the full picture. I just rounded up a few techno-geeks to help me refine some different areas. They never knew what the full project was." Felicity gave him a pointed look. "Contrary to your current opinion, I'm not an idiot."

"I don't think you're an idiot," said Oliver quickly.

Felicity folded her arms in front of herself. "Yeah, well, you don't seem overly confident that I know what I'm doing."

"When I don't know what is going on with you, I worry, okay? I can't help it." Another piece of the puzzle fell into place for Oliver. "That's what you were talking about on the phone, your other clients."

"I'd call them clients because I told everyone at the club I was running an IT consultancy business," supplied Felicity. "They didn't ask questions when I had people coming up to see me."

"And it explains why I kept hearing that I wasn't your usual type of client," said Oliver wryly.

"You're a lot of things, Oliver, but you don't exactly scream science geek," said Felicity dryly. She frowned at him. "Wait, now you're eavesdropping on my private phone calls as well?"

"I wasn't eavesdropping." Oliver gave a little shrug. "I just happened to hear you on the phone without you noticing."

"That's pretty much the definition of eavesdropping," said Felicity flatly. She shook her head at him. "I feel like I suddenly don't know you at all."

"Welcome to the club," said Oliver dourly. "Sucks, doesn't it?"

"If that is some kind of thinly veiled swipe at me omitting one minor detail about my life from you—"

"It wasn't thinly veiled, it was completely transparent and this—" Oliver swept a hand around the room, "isn't a minor detail. You have a whole other life going on that I knew nothing about."

"Why does that unnerve you so much?" Felicity demanded to know.

"I don't know," bit out Oliver in frustration. "It just does, okay? And it's giving me poor impulse control."

Felicity put her hands on her hips. "Is that meant to be an explanation for your Captain Caveman routine just then?"

Oliver released a sharp breath of annoyance. "If I had an explanation for any of my behavior over the last week I might actually be able to get some sleep," he said tersely. _Or never sleep again._ Oliver looked at Felicity and then quickly looked away again. He needed to change the subject, quickly. "How far along are you with this suit project?"

"Do you really want to know?"

Oliver turned and walked over to the table where a thin-looking mesh was laid out with intricate circuitry woven into the fibers. "Of course I want to know what you've been working on. It's only the thing I've been trying to figure out for the last week." He stood by the table and looked at Felicity expectantly. "How does it work?"

Felicity bit her bottom lip, her face lighting up as she quickly joined him at the table, seeming to forget their argument. "Well, my original idea was just to come up with some kind of lightweight body armor which you could wear in the field under your leathers and wouldn't restrict you when it came to fighting and shooting arrows." She touched a hand to the fabric. "But then when I started researching into the whole thing, I realized that I might be able to add other capabilities to it as well," said Felicity excitedly.

Oliver couldn't help but notice how animated Felicity had become as she talked about her creation. He really was lucky to have this gifted, brilliant woman on his side. Even if she was driving him crazy in the process. "What other kind of capabilities?"

"When I was working on the tensile strength of the suit, trying to get the material to absorb as much impact as possible—"

"How much impact can it absorb?" asked Oliver curiously. "A punch? A knife attack?" He looked at her intently. "A bullet?"

Felicity's head bobbed up and down. "Yes," she said excitedly, "it can take a bullet hit, lots in fact. I'm still working on all calibers but Lucius and I have gotten it to a point where it should be able to absorb up to a 9mm but we're pretty confident we can do better, even against automatic firearms."

Oliver couldn't help but be impressed. There was no denying something like this would be a huge help to him out on the streets.

"But here's the thing, I realized that while I was engineering the suit to absorb the energy of things like a bullet, I could try and work out a way to then harness that same energy to give an offensive element to the suit, rather than just a defensive one."

Oliver looked at her curiously. "How would that work?"

Felicity picked up the shirt and pulled on the fabric, showing it to Oliver. "You see all of these little cells embedded in the mesh?" Oliver nodded. "Well, we've turned them into little capacitors, thousands of them and what happens is that when they're impacted, the energy they absorb from something like a bullet can be stored briefly in these cells and redirected. Then I realized I could store other kinds of energy in these cells." Felicity was completely swept up in explaining about the suit, she was almost bouncing up and down on the spot. "When we use our muscles, an electrical charge is generated. Lucius and I have figured out a way to draw that energy into these cells and then amplify it."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning with the suit on, when you use your muscles to say, jump, the suit is going to provide you with a whole lot more energy feedback from your own muscles. That means you're going to be able to jump a lot higher. Or, if you were punching someone, the cells in the suit would compound all that electrical energy and mean that suddenly you'd be able to punch your way through a brick wall, in theory."

"But wouldn't I break every bone in my hand in the process?"

Felicity grinned. "That's the beauty of the system. Normally yes, your bones wouldn't be able to take that kind of energy transference but we're getting really close to being able to get the cells to absorb the shock, neutralizing the energy exchange that has to be done by your body. Long story short, the cells, rather than your body absorbs the shock and in turn utilizes it for more energy. Basically, the harder you punch, the more energy you have to use. The more muscle mass you have, the more electrical energy you have to redirect."

"So, this exoskeleton of yours can potentially stop bullets and make you faster and stronger than you were before?" said Oliver slowly. "Without cutting down your agility in the field."

Felicity looked rightfully pleased with herself. "That's it in a nutshell. Of course there are still a few little bugs to iron out." She wrinkled her nose. "There is an issue with the cooling system, all that energy generates a lot of heat but we're working on that and we've almost got it solved."

Oliver couldn't help but stare at her. "Felicity, you're amazing." He looked down at the suit on the table. "And a genius. I can't believe you taught yourself how to do all of this."

Felicity flushed a little at his praise and pushed her glasses up her nose. "To be honest, I didn't know I could do this either. I just sort of started and then everything seemed to fall into place." She cocked her head. "Also, I think I can play the guitar."

"What?"

"I mean, I've never learned or anything but it just feels like something I should be able to do."

"Felicity, no one can just play the guitar, you have to be taught. It isn't something you can just do."

She pursed her lips. "Even so, I feel like I could pick up a guitar and just start playing."

Oliver just stared at her. "You're so odd sometimes."

Felicity wrinkled her nose. "So does that comment mean the praising me element of the evening is over?" she asked in mild irritation.

Oliver shook his head, feeling a little overwhelmed by everything and the way Felicity was keeping him continually off-balanced. "I need some fresh air."

"You'll need to get back in your car and drive for a while to get any of that around here," said Felicity wryly. "It's all petrol fumes and vomiting drunks around here."

Oliver walked over to a window and opened it, noticing the fire escape outside. "I'll take my chances." He climbed out the window and out onto the fire escape. This night had been one of the strangest of his life and with the life he led, that was quite a list to top. Oliver suddenly needed to sit down and he did, legs dangling over the metal landing as Felicity climbed out to join him.

"This thing can take the two of us, right?" she asked a little anxiously.

"It's a fire escape," said Oliver, resting his forehead against the cold metal of the railing and looking out across the city lights. "It can take the weight of more than one person at a time." He needed some time to process all of this. Felicity wasn't a stripper but apparently she was some kind of genius inventor in her spare time. He felt like he'd gone hunting for tigers and ended up discovering a Triceratops.

"Considering the last landing you thought would hold your weight didn't, I'm not entirely convinced." Felicity gingerly took a seat beside him, still looking nervous. She sent him a sideways look. "Are you alright?"

"Just trying to work that out for myself," admitted Oliver wryly.

"I kinda thought you'd be pleased," said Felicity uncertainly. "You know I did all this for you."

He turned his head to look at her.

"I can't keep watching you take all those hits and pretending it's okay, Oliver," said Felicity emotionally. "What you do is crazy dangerous. I don't want to see you keeping on getting hurt the way you do. One day your luck is going to run out and I'm not okay with having to find something to wear to your funeral." She made an unhappy face. "I just thought if I could get this suit to work then you were going to be a whole lot safer than you are now."

"Felicity, this is the life I chose," he said quietly. "I've accepted the consequences of that life when it comes to what might happen."

"Well, maybe the people in your life aren't so Zen about the thought of you being killed, Oliver," said Felicity tightly. "Maybe some of us want to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn't happen." She looked away. "Even if you can behave like an ass face sometimes."

Oliver couldn't help his small smile at that comment. He reached out a hand and turned her face towards him. "I do appreciate what you're trying to do for me, Felicity. I'm amazed by this suit and astounded by you." Oliver held her gaze unflinchingly. "Thank you."

Felicity looked mollified by his gratitude. "Don't thank me yet, wait until the suit works properly." She smiled at him. "And you're welcome." Felicity glanced back over her shoulder. "Should we go back inside?"

"I think I'll just sit here for a bit," said Oliver, looking back out through the railings.

"Oliver, are you sure you're okay?" asked Felicity hesitantly.

He stared unseeing out into the night, pondering that question. "I don't know what you are," said Oliver suddenly.

Felicity looked at him sharply. "What?"

"You asked before what I thought you were, a duck or… you know, the other," said Oliver unevenly. "And I don't know."

"Oh." Felicity pulled a face. "Not two great choices."

Oliver grimaced. "I know you're not either of those things but what I'm beginning to realize is that I thought I knew you but it turns out you're this complete enigma to me. You knit scarves for blue whales—"

"Scarf, just the one."

"You keep lists of pros and cons of everyone you know," said Oliver a little dazedly, "and you teach yourself bio-engineering in your free time and can make groundbreaking body armor and have partnerships with people other than me." He looked at her intently. "I thought I knew how you fitted into my life and now I'm beginning to realize I think I'm going to have to make a bigger space."

Felicity narrowed her eyes a little. "Did you just call me fat?"

Oliver gave a little laugh. "No, Felicity, I didn't just call you fat. I'm just realizing how much more there is of you that I should be appreciating."

"That still sounds like you're calling me fat."

"Shut up and take a compliment."

"Your compliment technique needs work." She gave him an overly sweet smile. "Unlike your insult technique which you've got down to a fine art."

"I didn't really think you were a stripper," protested Oliver.

"Yes, you did."

"Okay, yes, I did but I put up a lot of fight to arrive at that conclusion." He sent her a pained look. "I honestly think this week has shortened my life expectancy."

Felicity arched an eyebrow. "Am I meant to feel guilty about that?"

"You don't have to but it'd be nice."

"Don't hold your breath," Felicity cautioned him. "I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not responsible for you leaping to ridiculous conclusions."

"Consider it from my point of view," he argued. "You've got to admit, it didn't look good."

Felicity gave a heavy sigh. "Okay, I guess I understand. I mean, if I found out you were stripping in some seedy club I'd try and stop you." Felicity looked thoughtful. "I'd probably go to a few shows first though," she commented idly and then froze. "I didn't just say that aloud, did I?" she asked, stricken.

"That you'd come and watch me strip?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Thank God," said Felicity unevenly, playing along even as she avoided eye contact with him but then she snuck him a sideways look. "Where you tempted to come and check out my act when you thought I was stripping?"

Oliver blanched. "Oh God no!"

Felicity sent him an unamused look. "It wouldn't have killed you to sound less emphatic about the thought of seeing me naked."

"I can't help it, I have very emphatic thoughts about a naked you," said Oliver unsteadily, unwanted memories of his dream assaulting him once again.

"Yeah, I see that," said a peeved Felicity, "but if you could dial back the horror level just a little bit you'd be doing my ego the world of good."

"My horror is over seeing you naked with a room full of other men wanting to do bad things to you," said Oliver unevenly. "If we were alone and naked then that would be…" He trailed off, realizing he'd somehow managed to wander into dangerous, uncharted territory once again with Felicity.

She was looking at him expectantly. "That would be what?"

Oliver swallowed hard. "A different kind of horrible."

Felicity's eyes narrowed. "You do realize that I'm about three seconds from pushing you over these railings to your death, right?"

"A fall from this height probably wouldn't kill me," said Oliver, just happy to be talking about something else.

"It would when I tossed BB out after you," said Felicity menacingly.

"You know he wasn't going to stop me, right?"

Felicity was still annoyed. "What?"

"BB, he wasn't going to stop me getting up those stairs," said Oliver determinedly. "Nothing was going to stop me getting to you." Even though Felicity had broken up his fight with BB, Oliver knew that there was no way that he'd have let the other man win, not if it meant not being able to get to Felicity when he thought she needed him.

"I don't know why as apparently I repulse you in every way," huffed Felicity.

"How much easier would my life be if that was true," lamented Oliver with a sigh.

Felicity threw up her hands. "Could you just pick an emotion and stick with it?" she asked in frustration. "I can't take much more of this mixed messaging."

"You want the truth?" asked Oliver, feeling something snap inside of him as he unintentionally raised his voice to her. "Okay, yes, I do think about you naked because that is what men do, they think about women without their clothes on because we're kind of disgusting like that and I wish to God that when I was thinking of you naked that I didn't enjoy it so much but I do and apparently there is nothing I can do about that." Felicity was staring at him, mouth open a little but now that he'd started, Oliver couldn't hold back the floodgates as he blurted out everything that had been driving him crazy this past week. "But what I also know is that based on my past history, when it comes to women I've seen naked in my life, I always end up screwing them up or over and I can't do that to you. I need you in my life, I need the Felicity-ness of you, all the weird, quirky, wonderful things that balance out my dark, twisty bits and I'm not prepared to give that up for some easy sex that I can get from any number of other women. Sex is easy to come by but there is only one you and I won't, I _can't_ jeopardize having you in my life for a quick roll in the hay. So, I can't let myself think of you like that. It's not an option for me and everything about this week has made me think of you like that over and over again and I think I may have lost my mind because of it. Not all of it, just bits of it, the bits that make me appear like a rational human being to the casual observer." Oliver knew he was babbling and revealed way more than was smart of him but it was done now. "And I'm still kind of angry at you over that but I'm angrier at myself because I know I should have handled this better but I haven't, okay? I just feel like you should take some of the blame for being so damn…" He gave her a frustrated look. "You," finished off Oliver in agitation, "and having this effect on me." He was a little out of breath after that tirade but there was no putting that genie back in the box which only left Oliver with one option. "If you want to go and get BB now, I'll throw myself over the railing and look forward to being squashed by a plummeting land mass." He sighed a little melodramatically. "Truth be told, I'd kinda enjoy the rest."

"I-I don't know what to say to all that."

Oliver gave a short grunt, resting his head against the railing again and looking out across the line of darkened buildings. "Yeah, well, you asked for the truth," he said morosely. Had he really just said all those things to Felicity? Maybe all of those knocks to his head today had given him brain damage after all.

"Okay, I do know what to say," said Felicity suddenly.

Oliver closed his eyes and grimaced, bracing himself for whatever was to come. After all, he'd brought this all on himself.

"Next time you want to tell a woman she's beautiful and you care about her, try not to shout it at her," said Felicity laconically. "It kind of takes from the moment."

Oliver chanced a sideways look at her. "I'm not getting much right with you these days, am I?"

Felicity gave him a thoughtful look. "I think you put a lot of pressure on yourself and take on responsibilities that aren't necessarily yours to bear. You don't have to worry so much about me and the impact you're having on my life. You really don't."

Oliver looked her intently. "If you've got any pointers on how I might manage that, I'm all ears," he said, only half-joking.

Felicity gave a little laugh. "If we're being really honest here, I don't really want you to stop worrying about me. I like it. I just don't want you to shorten your life expectancy over it. That's kind of the opposite of what I was going for when this whole suit thing started."

"I guess we're just stuck with worrying over each other and the occasional blurring of boundaries," said Oliver philosophically.

"Is that what we're calling this, a blurring of boundaries? You were stalking me and had me turning into a stripper."

"I find the stalking term a pretty harsh one."

"But essentially accurate."

"You were falling asleep at work, hanging out in seedy neighborhoods, making appointments with men in the middle of the night. Are you telling me I didn't have a right to be concerned?"

"I still don't know why you just didn't ask me about what I was doing. I would have told you. I mean, I was going to tell you soon anyways."

"I had my reasons for not just asking you in the beginning," said Oliver defensively.

"Which were?"

He pouted. "I don't know, it's all a blur now but they felt like good reasons at the time." Truth was Oliver had just wanted Felicity to tell her himself, without any prompting. He wanted her to trust him the way he trusted her. "Going forward can we just agree that you don't keep anymore secrets from me?" Oliver pulled a face. "Apparently I don't handle that well."

"Apparently," agreed Felicity readily. "Okay, no more secrets, I promise."

"Thank you, that's all I needed to hear." Oliver felt himself relax for the first time in days. He really did need to hear that.

Felicity sent him a quick sideways look. "You realize what this means, now that you know about the exoskeleton?"

"I can get a good night's sleep finally?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of starting some human trials," said Felicity excitedly.

"I'm assuming I'm the human in question with that particular scenario?" asked Oliver dryly.

"I was thinking of starting with rats but it's hard to make the suit that small and besides, who wants bionic rats running around." Felicity gave a little shudder. "They're already running half the city, with the exoskeleton there'd be no stopping them."

"Agreed, I'm having enough trouble containing my collection of two-legged arch nemeses," said Oliver in amusement. "I really don't want to start on four-legged ones."

"So, you'll help me trial the suit?" asked Felicity hopefully.

Oliver smiled at her. "I'd be honored," he said sincerely. "After all, you designed it for me in the first place."

"I know, just don't get mad if you lose a little body hair."

"I won't."

"And maybe a couple of layers of skin." Felicity shrugged at Oliver's suddenly concerned look. "Hey, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs."

He gave her a pointed look. "Easy to say when you're not the eggs in that scenario."

"You kind of owe me a little trust right about now, Oliver," observed Felicity.

"And you have it," said Oliver sincerely. He hesitated briefly. "How many layers of skin are we talking about?"

"I don't know, four or five."

Oliver pursed his lips and nodded, looking out at the city again. "Awesome."

Felicity nudged him with her shoulder. "I was going to trial it on myself. I still can."

"Absolutely not," said Oliver determinedly. "The suit was created for me. If it's going to potentially maim anyone, it's going to be me."

Felicity's lips quirked. "Somehow he manages to throw shade at my genius and be chivalrous in the same sentence. That's quite a skill you've got there, Mr. Queen."

"Yeah, well, I'm a man of many talents," said Oliver wryly as Felicity rested her head on his shoulder and looked out over the nightscape as well.

"Lucky me," she said teasingly.

Oliver rested his cheek on the top of Felicity's head, once again reveling in the fact that there were no more secrets between them. "I'm the lucky one," he said quietly. "Lucky to have you in my life."

Felicity snuggled in a little closer, slipping her arm through his. "And don't you forget it."

Oliver pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Never," he vowed softly, happy to just sit for a while with his best girl in comfortable and well-earned silence.

**A/N****: Don't know if any of that made sense. If it didn't, drink your own body weight in vodka and have another crack at re-reading the above. The vodka won't help you make sense of it but it will make you care a whole lot less. And then, once you've recovered some brain function from your alcoholic poisoning, then consider joining your Aunty Lou for the final chapter where Oliver's crotch will be the center of much attention… as the universe has preordained. **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N****: So, here we are, guys and dolls, Chapter Nine, the last chapter. I think 9 is a good number of chapters for a story such as this. For one thing it's divisible by 3, which I always find a great comfort to me. I'm always vaguely suspicious of the prime numbers with their 'we have no positive divisors' attitude. It seems a bit standoffish to me… elitist even. Who wants that in a number, eh? I don't need numbers looking down their noses at me, judging me. I've got enough issues without certain numbers thinking they're better than me. I can't be divided by any numbers either but you don't see me getting a swelled head about it. **

**I shall now climb down from my soap box and continue with the rest of this intro in a less crazed manner. *Please note, that may or may not happen***

**Exciting news from me… well, exciting is too strong a word… more mediocre, boring even, news… well, I say news, more just random information really. Let me start again, I have a boring fact to share with you. Hmm… that brings new meaning to the words 'underselling' it. I just don't want to get your hopes up that I'm going to say anything that will irrevocably change your life forever when that probably isn't going to happen… unless you have the smallest, most tragic life known to all of mankind ever in the history of time. In which case I say to you… bummer… sucks to be you, huh? And what is this underwhelming fact I hear you clamor (it's either you guys or the voices in my head – fingers crossed it's you guys because those voices, phew, they do not have many boundaries, I'm just warning you now)? It's that I have gone out and purchased the first season of Arrow and yes, I will be watching full episodes going forward. I've been wary for a lot of reasons of getting hooked on this show, mainly because of my shipping heart has been broken before and I'm just coming off the back of previous crushing disappointments in shipping couples that were never meant to be. So, I'm side-eyeing Olicity, knowing that there is a good chance they'll break my heart because Laurel and Oliver are meant to be end game in the comics and the producers have promised the same many times. **

**But, like an idiot, I'm going to hitch my wagon to the star which is the awesome chemistry between these two, burn my bridges, stock up on enough ice cream to put me into a sugar coma when the going get rough and just see this one through. And in the meantime, every time Oliver whores himself out with some woman that isn't Felicity, I'll just objectify the hell out of his chiseled perfection until he comes to his senses and realizes that I'm the only girl for him… I mean Felicity's the only girl for him. No projection going on here, no siree. My lines of reality are firmly drawn… in crayon… a green one to be precise. Green is my favorite color which I'm taking as a positive thing for Olicity… it's a stretch to get there with that but I'm making it work. **

**I've heard whispers of what is coming up for Olicity in season 3 and I can't help myself, I'm just going to have to partake even though I realize it's probably going to be very much like being adrift at sea with only a giant donut keeping you afloat after your cruise liner has sunk. You just know that you're not going to be able to stop yourself from nibbling away at that donut until there is nothing left, even though it's the only thing which is keeping you afloat and away from certain shipper death. **

**Okay, I know that's a weird analogy, even for me. For one thing, donuts don't float and even if they did, what kind of reputable cruise liner company would use them as safety equipment? Why would you even buy a ticket from a company who looks at a delicious sugar and fat laden treat and thinks that's what we should make our buoyancy devices out of? Clearly these people are idiots and should be avoided at all costs. And yet, here I am, me and the giant donut about to take the plunge into those icy shipper waters. So, I have to ask, who's the real idiot here? **

**Rude… you didn't have to answer that and certainly not that quickly. **

**But, your unsolicited burst of honesty aside, let's circle the wagons back to the point… and that point is that this is the last chapter. Thank you one and all for your brilliant support with this story. You know I adore each and every one of you for every comment, fave and follow. You rock, and not just rock but R-O-C-K! Yes, that's how special you all are to me. 3**

**Let's not say goodbye, let's just say gossypiboma instead, because it's fun word to say and no one ever guesses what it means. And when you look up what that word means, just consider the fact that this happens so often they actually had to make up a word for it. A sobering thought indeed, eh? **

**Hope you enjoy the last chapter and thanks one last time for reading…**

**CHAPTER NINE**

"Hey, Miss America, we're ready for the bathing suit part of the competition," called out Diggle. "What's taking you so long?"

"Unitards are surprisingly difficult to put on," came back Oliver's disembodied voice from the back room of the Foundry. "Actually, it's not that surprising."

"I want to test the suit's capacity as an all in one before I start making it in separate pieces," said Felicity, talking to Oliver through the wall as well. "I think having the exoskeleton in one piece will create more overall energy to be redirected. Multiple pieces will diffuse it out." She wrinkled her nose. "At least I think it will."

"It's fine, Felicity," said Oliver as he walked out from the other room. "I was just making an observation, not a criticism."

Felicity hurried over to Oliver, her eyes on the skin-tight tightly meshed suit. The grey material was lined with thin circuitry and Felicity fussed with some of them, straightening them to follow the lines of his body better. It was three weeks since Oliver had found out about her project and in that time Felicity had been working hard to get the suit ready for its first live trail and she was more than a little nervous. "How does it feel?" She looked at Oliver. "How's your maneuverability?"

Oliver made a few punching movements at the air, twisting his body and testing it out. "Good," he concluded, making an action as though he was grabbing an arrow from his back and shooting his bow. "I don't feel restricted at all." Oliver looked at her. "What's the plan for the testing tonight?"

"I thought we'd start slow and build up," said Felicity. "Diggle, do you want to hit the suit with this pipe?" She walked over and picked up a lead pipe she'd found lying around. "But not too hard in the beginning, just in case."

Diggle accepted the pipe. "Sure you don't want to do it? You probably owe him a crack over the head after that stripper debacle."

"I so regret telling you about that," grumbled Oliver.

"What you should have regretted is not telling me about it sooner before you made a total ass of yourself," said Diggle dryly. "You know I would have told you that you were insane and there had to be another explanation."

"I didn't make a total ass of myself," said Oliver tightly.

"It was more of a seventy to thirty ass to non-ass ratio," agreed Felicity.

Oliver gave a small pout. "You thought I was seventy percent ass?"

"In that outfit you're more like eighty percent now," said Diggle, lips twitching. "There isn't a whole lot left to the imagination."

"You don't have to look," said Oliver flatly.

"Can't help it, your ass follows me around the room. It's like the Mona Lisa's smile… only in a far more disturbing way."

"You're going to be like this all night," asked Oliver in resignation. "Aren't you?"

Diggle just smiled. "I don't get out much. This is pretty much my entertainment for the week."

"You don't think that's a little sad?" shot back Oliver.

"I think the guy in the unitard doesn't get to throw shade at the guy who's actually wearing pants."

Felicity was only half listening to their back and forth, still absorbed with the suit. "The plan is the exoskeleton will go under his leathers and this is just a prototype. It's not necessarily the final design."

"When we're going for a final design, can I put a vote in for an easy access way to pee?" asked Oliver. "I don't want to have to strip naked every time I need to go to the bathroom."

"Bathroom practicality is the least of my worries right now," said Felicity distractedly. "I just want to make sure that the suit doesn't kill you in the process of trying to protect you."

Oliver pulled on the material over his chest, readjusting the suit. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Felicity was doing a bit more than hoping. She really was nervous about the outcome of these tests. This was the first live trial and she didn't know how the suit was going to react against Oliver's body. There were a lot of things which could go wrong and Felicity couldn't help but think about each scenario and worry over them.

Diggle tightened his grip on the pipe and lifted it above his shoulders. "Okay, let's take this thing out for a spin."

"Wait," said Felicity, hurrying over to the camera she had set up, "let me make sure you two are in frame. I want to record this to review later." She pressed the record button. "Okay, you're good to go, just remember, start slow and build up. We have no way of knowing if the capacitor cells are going to be able to handle the energy transfer. It all looks good on paper but you never know what is going to happen in practice."

"It's fine, I'll just give him a little tap," said Diggle easily.

"Could you try not to look like you're enjoying this so much?" said Oliver dryly.

"It's not often I get a chance to have at you without you fighting back." Diggle grinned. "I'm going to make the most of it."

"That doesn't seem very sportsman-like of you," noted Oliver, arching an eyebrow.

Diggle gave a shrug of one broad shoulder. "Eh, what are you gonna do, right?"

Felicity pressed record on the camera. "Test one point one of the exoskeleton, direct impact with a blunt object." She nodded at Diggle. "Okay, Diggle, just remember, not too hard."

Diggle swung back the arm with the pipe and landed it on Oliver's chest. A flash of blue-white light rippled out across the suit as Felicity anxiously looked on. "Did that hurt?"

Oliver just smiled at her. "Did what hurt?" He sent Diggle a mocking look. "You hit like a girl."

Diggle looked over at Felicity. "Tell me I can hit him harder."

"You can hit him harder, but not full strength," said Felicity, feeling a surge of excitement at seeing the suit actually working.

Diggle swung the pipe back and cracked it very hard across Oliver's chest. The suit rippled again with blue-white energy but Oliver didn't even flinch. He arched an eyebrow at Diggle. "How is that not full strength?"

Diggle grinned. "I'm going to take a run up at you next time."

"You're enjoying this way too much."

"I know, it's like I've got my very own Oliver Queen piñata and it's just as much fun as it says on the box."

"Did that hurt at all, Oliver?" asked Felicity. "What did you feel?"

"There was a bit of heat but I didn't feel any kind of pain," said Oliver. He gave her an admiring look. "The suit is amazing, Felicity."

Felicity bit her bottom lip at the praise. "Lucius is going to be so excited when he sees how these trials are going."

"You're going to show the video to Lucius?" asked Oliver, sounding surprised.

"How can I not? He helped me get to this point."

"You worried about your secret identity?" Diggle asked Oliver. He shook his head. "I wouldn't. From what you told me about your first meeting with Lucius, he's already worked out something is a bit hinky with you two and this suit. If he hasn't said or done anything about that yet, I think your secret is safe with him."

"And it wasn't me who let your cat out of the bag this time either," said Felicity quickly, thinking about how upset Oliver had been when she'd called in Barry Allen to help save his life. "It was you. Before stripper-gate, Lucius had no idea we might be involved in anything other than me being your assistant."

Oliver grimaced. "I genuinely thought you were in trouble."

"I know, but it is what it is now," said Felicity. "And for what it's worth, I trust Lucius. I don't think he's any kind of threat to us." She smiled. "The opposite in fact."

Oliver inclined his head. "Okay, mea culpa, I accept that."

"Can I hit him again?" asked Diggle brightly.

Felicity couldn't help but smile how eager Diggle sounded at that question. "Yes, but try other parts of the suit now, just to make sure there is equal protection." She watched as Diggle set about basically beating Oliver with the pipe – his back, legs and arms – none of them showed any kind of impact to Diggle's enthusiastic blows. "Hold up, Diggle, let me check the suit," said Felicity after a few minutes. She walked up to Oliver, eyes fixed on the exoskeleton, looking for any kind of damage. "None of that hurt?" Felicity asked, pulling on a couple of lines of circuitry along Oliver's arms.

"Just my feelings," said Oliver straight-faced. He gave a pointed look over Felicity's shoulder to Diggle. "You're having too much fun trying to hurt me."

"Hey, I'm merely acting as a tool of science," said Diggle innocently.

Oliver sent him a sweet smile. "Well, you're half-right with that one."

Diggle smirked. "I see what you did there."

"The suit is intact and handling things well so far." Felicity frowned at Oliver. "Do you want to keep going?"

"Of course," he said without hesitation.

"You should probably wait until I tell you what I want to do next before you say yes."

"I'm not worried, Felicity," said Oliver easily. "What's up next on your trial?"

Felicity grimaced. "I want to check the suits integrity out against bullets."

Diggle tossed the pipe over his shoulder. "Won't be needing this anymore."

"Let's do it," said Oliver.

Felicity bit her bottom lip. "Diggle, just use the least powerful gun we have and aim for something non-essential, like his Oliver's arm, okay? The suit should hold up in theory but—" She made a face. "—we really won't know until we test it." Felicity watched Diggle go over and pick up his handgun, gnawing on her bottom lip. If the suit didn't hold up against bullets… she didn't want to even complete that thought. Her attention was back on Oliver when he touched her arm.

"Worst case scenario I get shot in the arm," he told her. "I've been shot before. It's not a big deal, Felicity. Don't look so worried."

"It is a big deal if I'm the reason you're getting shot," fretted Felicity.

"I have faith in you and your suit," said Oliver simply. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

"Oliver!" said Felicity in distress. She hurried over and knocked three times on the wooden bench top. "Don't say things like that, you're tempting fate." Felicity indicated the table. "You have to knock three times too."

"Yeah, no, I'm not going to do that," said Oliver in vague amusement. "Since when are you superstitious?"

"Since I'm getting Diggle to shoot you," said Felicity unhappily.

"Oliver's right," said Diggle, taking up a position on the far wall, "everything is going to be fine."

Felicity wanted to believe their reassurances but she knew all the way things could go horribly wrong and it wasn't that easy for her to be so confident. Sometimes ignorance really was bliss. "Diggle, can you back up a little more? I want this first shot to be as long range as possible."

"With this low caliber of gun, the further I go away, the more my accuracy decreases," he warned her.

Felicity shook her head. "Okay, we don't want that. Stay where you are." She looked at Oliver. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," agreed Oliver. He took his position as Felicity checked on the camera.

"I'm all set," she told them. "Exoskeleton bullet trial two point one." Felicity nodded at Diggle. "Ready."

Diggle took aim at Oliver but at the last moment Felicity couldn't look. She covered her eyes with her hands and then gave a violent start as a shot ran out. "Did it work?" she asked anxiously, too frightened to open her eyes and see a bloodied Oliver lying on the ground.

"It worked, Felicity," said a pleased sounding Oliver. "You can open your eyes."

Felicity hesitantly dropped her hands away and felt a surge of relief at seeing Oliver stand there, completely unharmed.

"The bullet hit me then just dropped away." Oliver pointed at the spent shell on the ground. "There was just a bit of heat."

"It worked," breathed Felicity, hardly able to believe it. The exoskeleton was actually bulletproof. The relief made her head spin.

"How about I empty the clip and see what happens?" suggested Diggle.

Felicity nodded. "But not too fast. Give the suit a chance to dissipate all that energy." This time Felicity managed to make herself watch Diggle shooting at Oliver, even though she still flinched at every single shot. The suit rippled continuously as it absorbed each bullet's impact while Oliver stood his ground, taking each hit without batting an eyelid.

Oliver lifted a hand and motioned at Diggle. "Closer," he instructed the other man.

Before Felicity could voice any protest, Diggle walked towards Oliver, firing his gun at regular intervals as he did. Bullets bounced off Oliver until Diggle had none left to fire. Felicity released the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding as the echo of the last shot died down. Once again she hurried over to Oliver, intent on checking the suit. "How was that? Did any of that hurt?"

"I could feel the impact as Diggle got closer but it didn't hurt," said Oliver. He pulled on the collar of the exoskeleton with one finger. "Just got a bit warm."

"You're sweating," said Felicity disapprovingly, noticing the beads of water on Oliver's brow. "Don't do that. I don't know how the suit is going to react to salty water." She wrinkled her nose. "Or just plain water for that matter."

"I'm not doing it intentionally," pointed out Oliver.

"I know but it might affect the suit," worried Felicity.

"The suit is going to have to deal because I do a lot of sweating when I'm out on the streets," Oliver informed her.

"Inconvenient," muttered Felicity, not having really factored that issue into her considerations about the suit.

"So is dying because your body is unable to regulate its temperature," said Oliver wryly. He looked down at Felicity as she closely examined the suit, absorbed in checking every inch of the material where Diggle had been shooting at. "How does it look?"

"Intact," said Felicity in relief.

"Want to up the ante?" suggested Diggle. He picked up a shot gun. "What do you think?"

Felicity hesitated, not sure that was a good idea.

"Let's do it," agreed Oliver immediately. When he saw Felicity's reluctance he gave her a reassuring look. "Considering how long it took me to get into this thing, I say let's make it worth the effort. What's the worst that can happen?"

"Diggle can blow a huge, gaping hole in your chest," said Felicity flatly.

"I never took you as a glass half empty kinda girl," he teased her.

Felicity gave up. "Okay, fine, we'll try the shot gun but I want to keep an eye on your body temp." She walked over to her bench top and fished through the various bits and pieces she'd collected and then walked back to Oliver when she found what she was looking for. Felicity held up the two patches. "Just put these on your chest, under the suit and they'll remotely measure your core body temperature. The human body needs to stay within a couple of degrees of normal otherwise there can be serious repercussions… like death."

"As serious goes, death is a biggie," agreed Diggle as they both watched Oliver pull down the front of his suit and put the self-adhesive buttons onto his chest.

Oliver pulled the suit back up. "How's that?"

Felicity walked back to her bench which Diggle was now leaning against, shotgun in hand. "Let me just check it." She bent over one of her computers, starting up the program which ran the wireless body monitoring software.

Diggle looked over her shoulder.

"I can't stop thinking about Oliver's crotch," fretted Felicity as she waited for the temperature readings to stabilize.

"Oh well, sure," said a straight-faced Diggle, "we've all been there."

Normally Felicity appreciated Diggle's wry humor but right now she really did have serious concerns. "I'm just worried that there will be excess heat generated and everything which is on the outside of Oliver's body won't be protected and well… things could get burnt off, or worse."

Diggle pulled a face. "I don't think there is a worse scenario than that one."

"What are you two whispering about?" called out Oliver from where he was still standing in the middle of the room.

"Never have the words 'you don't want to know' ever rung more true than right now," Diggle answered him.

Oliver walked over to them. "Now I really want to know."

"You won't when you hear what it is," predicted Diggle confidently.

"I'm worried the suit might cook your testicles," blurted out Felicity.

Oliver blanched. "I didn't want to hear that."

"Told you," said a self-satisfied Diggle.

Oliver looked concerned. "What kind of likelihood is there of that happening?"

"I'm not sure. I mean, I can't give you an exact percentage."

"One could argue that even a one percent chance feels like too big of a risk," mused Diggle.

"I don't know, all experimentation has an inherent risk to it," said Oliver, not sounding as confident as his words might imply. "I guess that's an acceptable margin of error."

Diggle shrugged. "If you say so but maybe some of us just have more to lose in that department than others."

Oliver sent him an unamused look. "Cute."

"And that's before we even start talking about what the excess heat might do to your sperm," said Felicity, worrying out loud. "They could all get cooked."

"Wait, are you saying the suit could make me sterile?" asked Oliver, a little taken aback.

Felicity grimaced. "It's not not a possibility." She gave Oliver an intent look. "Maybe we should consider freezing some of your little guys down, you know, just on the off chance that something like that could happen."

Diggle held up a hand. "Hold on now. This evening's festivities were sold to me as some playful light to medium assault and battery. There was no talk of Oliver's love juice being a part of proceedings. My Kink-O-Meter is firmly dialed to a 'oh hell no' setting on that one."

"Can we all stop talking about my sperm?" asked Oliver tightly.

Felicity started to protest. "But we should really discuss—"

"Felicity, we're not talking about this anymore," said Oliver firmly. "You're watching my body temp. I'm going to be fine." He looked over at Diggle. "I believe you were about to shoot a few rounds from a big gun at me?"

Diggle pulled a face. "Why does that suddenly sound dirty to me?"

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Let's try and get tonight back on a PG-13 rating, okay? No more below the belt talk." He fixed Felicity with a determined look. "You ready to record this?"

Felicity made an unhappy face. "Yes."

"Good." Oliver went and stood in the middle of the room as Diggle gave a pump of the shotgun, ready to shoot.

Felicity looked through the view finder of the camera. "Bullet trial, two point two."

Diggle took aim and squeezed the trigger, blasting Oliver's suit with dozens of pieces of buckshot. The exoskeleton lit up in a blaze of bright light which quickly died down again.

Felicity's ears were still ringing from the noise of the blast. "Oliver, are you okay?"

Oliver looked down at the suit and the multiple pieces of twisted metal at his feet. "Yeah, I'm good." He hesitated and made a little face.

"What's wrong?" asked Felicity quickly.

Oliver shook his head. "Nothing." He stopped again and gave a full blown grimace. "The suit is just getting pretty hot."

Felicity's gaze flicked over to her computer screen and saw the temperature indicators were rising rapidly. She gave a gasp of distress. "The suit couldn't dissipate all the energy from that many impacts at once. It's overheating."

"No kidding," ground out a now red-faced Oliver as he clawed at the figure-hugging material.

"Oliver!" said Felicity in horror as the smell of burning hair filled the room.

Oliver was tearing at the suit, pulling it from his body as Diggle rushed over to help him, grabbing at the material to get it away from Oliver's skin. Felicity suddenly realized that Oliver was going to be completely naked when he was out of that suit and she abruptly swung around, putting her back to both men. "Is he okay? Oliver, are you alright?" she asked fearfully. _Please God, don't let this be happening._ Felicity's heart was beating painfully in her chest.

There was the sound of more scuffling from behind her and then came Oliver's uneven reply. "Yeah," he panted, "I'm okay."

"Okay might be stretching it a little," said Diggle.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Felicity was desperate to turn around and see for herself if Oliver was alright but knew that wasn't a good idea.

"Let's just say your suit has done a manscaping job that any Brazilian would be proud of," said Diggle, sounding like he was trying not to laugh.

"What do you mean… oh!" Felicity blushed bright red as she realized what Diggle meant and why there was such a strong smell of burnt hair in the room. "Oliver, I'm so sorry," she said, embarrassed beyond belief.

"It's not your fault, Felicity," said Oliver unevenly. "These things happen."

"What kind of life have you led up to this point where getting your pubes burnt off is an everyday event?" asked Diggle skeptically. "I know a lot of weird stuff went down on that island but seriously?"

Felicity groaned and buried her head in her hands.

"You're making Felicity feel bad, Diggle," said Oliver in annoyance. "And you're not exactly endearing yourself to me right now, either."

"Considering you're buck naked, I'm going to take that as a good thing."

"Oliver, you need to get into the shower," said Felicity. "Are you burnt anywhere else?"

"Here and there."

"Go and cool yourself down with the shower and then come back out and I'll check you over." Felicity suddenly realized how that sounded. "I mean with clothes on," she said hastily. "Come back out with clothes on."

"You really didn't need to clarify that, Felicity," said Oliver dryly as she heard him walking away.

Diggle walked around so he was standing directly in front of her. Felicity bit her bottom lip and looked up at the other man. "Is it really bad?"

Diggle just smiled. "He's okay, Felicity. Just singed here and there, like those little furry animals you see running out of forest fires."

Felicity groaned. "This is a disaster."

Diggle made a tutting noise. "I think you need to put this in perspective, Felicity. Oliver took a full shotgun blast to the chest and he walked away from it in one piece, minus a little bit of arguably nonessential body hair." Diggle gave her a proud look. "If you're asking me, that's pretty much a win for Team Arrow and you're the reason why."

"You think so?" asked Felicity tremulously.

Diggle put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You, young lady, are a genius and don't you forget it. That suit is amazing, just like its creator."

Felicity put her hand up to touch his arm as he kept a hold of hers. "Thank you, Diggle. I just want to do make sure I'm doing everything I can to give us the upper hand in this war."

"You do more than your fair share and everyone knows it," he said firmly. Diggle glanced at his watch. "So, I'm pretty much guessing any further testing is over for the night?"

"Somewhere you should be?"

Diggle half-smiled. "Well, there is this woman I met at the coffee shop yesterday. Said I might give her a call—"

"You should definitely go," said Felicity, happy to hear Diggle was dipping his toe in the dating pool again. "Like you said, there isn't going to be any more testing tonight. I'll make sure Oliver is okay before he goes home."

"Might take you up on that," said Diggle, walking over to pick up his coat. "This evening had more full frontal nudity then I'd been prepared for. Could do with a little palate cleanser."

Felicity put a hand up to her mouth to hide her smile. "It's not funny, Diggle. Oliver could have been seriously hurt."

"The only one in danger was me being blinded by that lily-white ass of his." Diggle pulled on his coat. "Boy needs to get some sun on that thing."

Felicity couldn't help but laugh. "You're so mean. I'm sure Oliver's butt isn't that white." Although now Felicity had a mental image of Oliver sunning himself buck naked on a beach which was completely unprofessional of her… but a lot of fun to think about.

"Trust me, it's like he's part glow worm with an ass like that." Diggle walked over and gave her a quick hug. "Your suit is incredible, Felicity. You should be very proud of yourself and you know Oliver and I are."

Felicity returned the hug. "Thanks, Diggle." They broke the hug and Diggle was heading up the stairs. "Have fun on your date."

"It's not a date, it's a grabbing a late night bite to eat," said Diggle over his shoulder.

"I'll still want details tomorrow," she called out up to him. "And take a photo, so I can see what she looks like."

"Yeah, because that wouldn't be weird," said Diggle dryly, now at the top of the stairs. "Say goodnight to our glorious leader for me."

Felicity nodded. "I will." When Diggle was gone, Felicity walked over to where the suit was lying on the ground. She crouched down and picked up the exoskeleton which was now torn in places because of Oliver and Diggle's haste to get it off his body. The damage was just superficial and Felicity knew she'd have to rework the suit anyways to try and address the heating dispersion problem. But it had worked. Even if there were still some issues to resolve. The suit had protected Oliver against body blows and bullets. A slow smile crept over Felicity's face as it started to sink in that her dream was becoming a reality.

"I'm sorry I ripped the suit."

Felicity started at the sound of Oliver's voice behind her and she whirled around. "Oh, I didn't hear you get out of the shower." She looked down at the suit in her hands. "And it's okay. I need to do a lot of work on this anyway." Felicity's expression became concerned as her gaze ran over Oliver as he stood in front of her in sweat pants and bare feet. There were red patches across his chest and arms from where the suit had gotten too hot against his skin. "Sit down. I'll put some cream on those burns." Oliver dutifully took a seat while Felicity retrieved the burn ointment from their first aid supplies.

Oliver looked around. "Where's Diggle?"

"Hot date," said Felicity, walking over to him, burn cream in hand.

"Good for him."

"He said to say goodnight." Felicity was standing beside Oliver now and able to take a closer look at his injuries. "Most of these just look like first degree burns. They shouldn't blister. Oliver, I'm so sorry that this happened."

Oliver gave her a wry look. "It would be helpful when you said that if you weren't grinning like a loon."

Felicity put a hand to her lips and realized she still had a huge smile on her face. "Sorry, I'm just pretty excited about the suit." She wrinkled her nose. "But I am sorry you got hurt."

"You should be excited," said Oliver. "And I told you, I'm fine, don't worry about me."

"That's not going to happen," said Felicity simply. "Hence the suit." She opened the jar of cream and used her fingers to apply some onto the pink mark she could see on Oliver's shoulder. "Does that hurt?"

He shook his head. "No, feels nice." Oliver turned to look at her as Felicity gave all of her attention to rubbing the cream into the wounds dotted over his body. "So, what's next?"

"The cream should relieve most of the stinging but I don't think there is much else that can be done," said Felicity distractedly.

Oliver smiled. "I meant about the exoskeleton," he said indulgently. "What's next for that?"

Felicity looked up and met his gaze. "I'll get together with Lucius, we'll rework the design to try and address the heating issue." She moved around to stand in front of Oliver, applying more cream to burns on his chest. "And the sweating issue. Maybe that's why it had dispelling the energy with the shotgun," she mused. "Maybe the sweat created a hyper-conductivity that—" Felicity stopped abruptly and gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry, nerd talk. You don't want to hear it."

"I like listening to your nerd talk," protested Oliver. He gave a self-deprecating smile. "I don't understand half of it, but I still like listening to you being incredibly smart." Oliver cocked his head. "What's that look for?"

Felicity gave a little shrug. "I was just thinking about my list."

"The infamous pros and cons one?"

"Uh huh."

"What about it?"

"I thought you didn't want to know about my list?" she teased him.

"I find my curiosity continually piqued about you these days, Ms. Smoak," said Oliver drolly.

Felicity didn't quite know what to make about that comment so she decided to answer his question instead. "I was just thinking about how on your pros side there is that you're willing to let me experiment on you and give me compliments even though you ended up being roasted like a chicken wrapped in aluminum foil."

Oliver half-smiled. "Has anyone ever told you your list is weirdly specific?"

"There isn't really a word for what you did tonight," said Felicity, wishing she could make him understand just how grateful she was for the amount of faith he had in her. "Except for maybe just… Oliver." She gave a small smile. "You were just really Oliver about everything tonight."

"Using my name as an adjective," said Oliver slowly. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It's a good thing." An impish light came into her eyes. "Except for when you're being Oliver about things you've dreamed up in your head."

He sighed dramatically. "How many more times are you going to make me apologize for the Fallen Angel misunderstanding?"

Felicity made a show of looking thoughtful. "From my preliminary calculations, I'm going to say seven more times."

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm—"

Felicity put her hand up to his mouth. "Okay, I'm revising my initial numbers. Apologies accepted. We won't talk about it ever again."

"You have no idea how grateful I'd be if that were true," said Oliver ruefully. "It wasn't exactly my finest hour."

"You were trying to look out for me," said Felicity philosophically. "And by me, I mean Felicity, the girl who takes her clothes off for men while she swings around a pole at the same men shove money down her G-string."

"Is this you letting it go?"

"I just find it really hard to wrap my head around the fact that you thought if I needed extra money, my go to would be stripping."

"I hope I'd be your go to if that was ever the case."

Felicity blanched. "I'd rather die than ask you for money, Oliver Queen."

Oliver made a surprised face. "Why?"

"Because I have my pride."

"That's ridiculous. If you ever needed money or anything else for that matter, I'd want you to come to me," he said emphatically.

Felicity arched an eyebrow. "And you'd do the same, would you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You find yourself suddenly broke and you'd ask me for me money?"

Oliver hesitated.

"Exactly. Money changes things between people and I don't want one red cent from you, ever." Felicity pulled a face. "Except for my pay check, I still want that but I earn that money. No freebies."

"You more than earn it," said Oliver sincerely. "And I'd still like to think you'd come to me about anything, money included. It's not a big deal."

"Money isn't a big deal when you have lots of it," she countered. "It gets a bigger deal the less of it you have." Felicity moved around to his back and started on the burns there. "And besides, if I did need money, I'd find my own way of getting it. Turns out I'm not horrible at creating gadgets which can be very useful in the right hands." She rubbed more of the cream in. "Or the wrong hands." Felicity walked back around, eyes full of mischief. "Maybe I'd try my hand at being a supervillain. You know, give you a run for your money."

"You already do that," said Oliver wryly, "and you'd make a terrible supervillain."

Felicity made a mock sound of outrage. "Excuse me, I'd make a kickass supervillain if I wanted to."

Oliver shook his head. "No, you'd be horrible at it because you're too nice."

This time Felicity's gasp of outrage was more real. "That's a horrible thing to say! You don't call a girl nice. You may as well just call her boring and be done with it."

"Nice isn't boring," protested Oliver.

"Of course it is. It's one of those things you say when you can't think of anything else positive to say about a person." Her eyes narrowed with mock menace. "Just for that, maybe I will become a supervillain and make you eat your own words." Felicity paused, giving that some thought. "But I probably wouldn't wear all that leather and knee-high boots. That seems really uncomfortable to me."

"Shame," said Oliver teasingly. "I wouldn't have minded seeing you in that kind of outfit."

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Well, I guess it's safe to say you have a type."

"I don't have a type," disagreed Oliver quickly.

"Oh please, you love women who can give as good as they get and hold their own in a fight." She gave him a pointed look. "Face it, Oliver, you like women with giant balls." Felicity held up a hand. "I mean figurative balls, not actual balls." She tilted her head. "Although what do I know? Maybe you do have a lady boy thing going on, I don't know everything about you."

Oliver screwed up his face. "I don't have a lady boy thing going on. I like my women to be actual women, no unexpected extras."

"And you like those women to be ass-kickers. I get it."

He was looking at her intently. "I'm assuming from that you don't see yourself that way?"

Felicity made a frustrated noise. "You know I'm not. Just today I had to get Diggle to help me get the lid off a jar of mayonnaise. That doesn't exactly scream lethal force of destruction, now does it?"

"Felicity, you kick my ass ten times every day," said Oliver keenly. "How do you not know that?"

She was taken aback. "I just tell you when you're being an idiot. That's not the same thing."

"Growing up as Oliver Queen do you know how many people told me the truth about myself?" he asked her determinedly. "I'll give you a hint, you don't even need one hand to count them. I was the golden-haired boy who was given a pass for every selfish, stupid thing I ever did and it was all because of my last name. The most precious thing I have in this world are the people who are willing to tell me the truth about who I am and what I'm doing. You don't need to be able to throw a punch to get my attention, Felicity. You just have to be you."

Felicity stared at him, suddenly conscious of how close they were standing. She was between his legs, their faces on the same level because he was sitting down. "Do-do I have your attention?" she asked hesitantly.

Oliver stared back at her and suddenly the room seemed to shrink around them. When Oliver looked at her that way, it was easy to forget that anyone else existed. This close, his blue eyes holding hers, there was only the two of them in the entire world. "Having my attention hasn't always turned out to be such a great thing," said Oliver in a rough whisper.

Felicity held his gaze seriously. "That wasn't my question," she whispered back.

"I know."

They continued to stare at each other and Felicity felt like she suddenly couldn't breathe. The air between them seemed to crackle with all the things they weren't saying and then Oliver was leaning forward and Felicity's heart nearly stopped beating in her chest as she realized he was going to kiss her. It was one of those surreal moments where everything slowed down but seemed to be happening all at once. She was conscious of every single thing about the moment, her eyes sliding close as he felt the first brush of Oliver's warm lips against her own. Felicity literally felt her knees go weak just as a loud bang from above their heads had them both starting. She took a hasty step back as Diggle appeared at the top of the stairs, breaking the spell they'd both fallen under.

"Forgot my cell phone," said Diggle as he trotted down the stairs.

Felicity put a flustered hand to her cheek, feeling how hot it felt and very conscious of the way Oliver was still staring at her.

Diggle stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked between the two of them. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No," said Felicity loudly, too loudly. She tried to bring it down to a more normal decibel level. "No, of course not. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Diggle walked over to the nearby bench top to where a cell phone was lying out. "Here it is." He slipped it into his coat pocket and then gave them both another curious look. "You sure you two are okay?"

Oliver cleared his throat. "Of course we are. Why wouldn't we be?"

Diggle sent them thoughtful looks. "This may interest you to know, but you both do this thing when you're lying where you always end your denials with a question." His look was pointed. "It's a huge tell."

"That's crazy," said Oliver hotly. "Why would you say something like that?"

Diggle arched a knowing eyebrow at him.

"That was a rhetorical question," said Oliver quickly, trying to backtrack. "It doesn't count."

"That question was in no way rhetorical," said Diggle wryly. "And it absolutely counts."

"I was just putting some cream on Oliver," said Felicity hastily. "Nothing else. What else would we be doing?"

Oliver winced. "Felicity."

Felicity made a face. _Okay, maybe they did end their lies with questions._ They were both going to have to work on that. She needed to change the subject, addressing Oliver. "Have I missed anywhere that has burns that needs me to rub cream on it or are we done here?"

Oliver hesitated and glanced down at his crotch. Felicity blushed violently. "Oh, right, well, you should probably handle that yourself." She shoved the bottle of ointment at him.

"That's probably a good idea," said Oliver unsteadily, accepting the tub of cream.

Felicity knew her face was still flame red and she really didn't want to make any more of a fool of herself tonight. "Well, I'm really tired. I think I'll go home and hit the hay. Big day tomorrow analyzing all of this data, want a clear head." Felicity could feel herself slipping into babbling mode and knew she needed to get out of there. She grabbed her coat and avoided eye contact with both men. "Night."

"Goodnight."

"Night."

Felicity didn't stop to acknowledge their goodbyes, just quickly walked up the stairs and headed out of the building, keeping her pace up until she was in the relative safety of her car. She sat there, staring straight ahead, not even attempting to put the keys in the ignition. _Had that really just happened? Did Oliver Queen almost kiss her?_ Felicity couldn't help but think what might have happened if Diggle hadn't made such an inopportune reappearance. She clutched the steering wheel and dropped her head down onto it. "Ow," she said dully as her forehead connected painfully with the wheel. Felicity was trying her hardest not to get caught up in the moment. Oliver kissed a lot of girls, that didn't necessarily make you special or mean that it meant anything else to him other than a spur of the moment impulse. Felicity really didn't want to turn into some pathetic fangirl around him. She worried that she did that enough as it was. Oliver was a man that turned women's heads and Felicity didn't want to be turned around so badly that she made an idiot of herself. She drew in an unsteady breath, trying to calm herself down. "Keep your feet on the ground, Felicity," she ordered herself determinedly, finally finding the coordination to put the key in the ignition. "Oliver has enough women throwing themselves at his feet. You are not, repeat _not,_ going to be one of them." Despite the firm talking to she'd just given herself, Felicity was pretty certain she already knew what she was going to be dreaming about tonight and it was most likely not going to have the PG-13 rating Oliver had been so intent on keeping for this evening. _Damn Oliver Queen and his perfect lips._ What was a girl meant to do to protect herself against that kind of force of nature? If only there was some kind of suit out there that was designed to ward off the impact they'd have on a girl. She touched her hand to her lips, still feeling the warmth of Oliver's lips there. "Just don't do anything stupid, okay? Be smart about this." Felicity didn't exactly know what the smart thing was to do about any of this so she just put her car in gear and drove, hoping the answer would come to her on the drive home.

_Not unsurprisingly, it didn't. _

**A/N****: I know what you're all thinking… I bet you I can touch my nose to my elbow if I really tried. Well, you can't… you just tried to, didn't you? And it didn't work? See, told you so… and if you were able to then you should probably seek medical attention straightaway because something is not right there! **

**Now the other thing you're all probably thinking is… geez, are you still trying to do the nose/elbow thing? Quit it already. You guys have the attention spans of a gnat, seriously! What if someone walked into the room and caught you trying to do that? What are you going to tell them… the internet made you do it? Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, just sit still and behave yourself and let me get this last thought out, okay? **

**You're thinking that was a weird way to end a story. And yes, I'll give you that, it was/is. What I will also say to that is there is a good reason for this. I know some of you were hoping for more Olicity moments of the more adult-nature in this fic and I didn't exactly provide that. I'm a great believer in having to work for those kinds of character developments and as this was only a short fic, it was tricky to get them from point A to point B and feel justified in doing so. But, to that end, I do have in mind another fic which would pick up from where this one left off and it would be a much more… I guess, adult, affair you could call it. A higher censure rating and some definite scenarios where I'd shamelessly exploit the poetry which is Stephen Amell's body in the guise of Oliver Queen. You know, more than I just did with this chapter. Sorry for objectifying you there, Stephen but I can't help but you feel like you bring this on yourself more than a little bit. If you were less perfect looking, fangirls like me wouldn't exploit you, so yeah, I feel like you're the one at fault here, not me… apology accepted. **

**But back to the point. If people let me know they are interested, I have a sequel in mind for this story which would progress the Olicity relationship quite substantially but would be a bit darker and twistier. Is anyone up for that or should I just let sleeping dogs lie on this one? I know a lot of people said they enjoyed the lighter nature of this fic compared to a lot of the more angsty stuff out there. Let me know and I'll follow your lead. I do have a title for the next fic, just as a bye the bye. It's called 'Love Potion #9', so, in case people do end up being interested and let me know, keep an eye out of it, on the off chance. **

**And with that, I'm done-diddly-done. It's been a blast. You've all been great. Never change… except for your underwear, it's always good to change your underwear semi-regularly. That's a bit of life advice from your Aunty Lou to you… treasure it always. **

**Toodles…**


End file.
